The Crisis of Taylor Hebert
by TheDivineDemon
Summary: A damaged Tinker device drags six alternate versions of Taylor Hebert to Skitter's reality and things could only escalate from there.
1. Chapter 1

The Crisis of Taylor Hebert:

Prologue:

Taylor at times wondered if she was making a foolish decision. Throwing herself into such needless danger for benefits she may never see.

At least the view was nice.

"Tighten your stance up, you're leaving your sides open."

"Oof." That was the only word of response she could muster as Brian took advantage of her wandering attention and had his shin met her side, knocking the air from her lungs and forcing her onto her bum.

Brian's biceps, and the pain, aside Taylor was learning a lot. That day was mostly how to properly defend herself in case someone got past her swarm, others were dedicated to making sure she knew how to handle her knife properly enough.

"You have to keep your feet squared Taylor, you'll fall over at the first hit every time. Pretty sure I've already told you that." He gave her one of his boyish smiles, eyes dancing playfully as he offered her his hand.

Taylor had the decency to blush as she took it. "I know," she mumbled, "I just keep forgetting." 'And getting distracted,' she would add in her thoughts.

"For only a few weeks of this you're doing pretty good," he said easily enough as he pulled her to her feet. "You're doing a lot better than Alec ever did."

"I resent that," Alec said, looking up from where he was lazing on the coach. "I could totally kick the dork's ass."

"Let's just say I have my doubts." Brian said, giving Alec a flat look. "Maybe if you practiced, or even worked out, I might believe you."

"Eh, that would take effort." Alec said, waving his hand loftily as he did so.

Brian just rolled his eyes before he turned back to Taylor, intent on teaching her how to keep a solid stance while moving around.

Unfortunately, both for his lesson and Taylor's viewing pleasure, Lisa finally came out of her room.

"Is Rachel back yet?" Lisa asked in way of greeting as she entered the main room of the Lair.

"She went out to walk her dogs a while ago, should be back in ten minutes or so."

"Shit, guess I'll have to fill her in later." she mumbled under her breath before looking straight at Brian. "Look, the boss has a job for us, and it's a bit time sensitive."

"Already?" Alec whined. "We aren't even done with that ABB thing yet."

"Can't be helped. The other gangs will just have to make do without us," she said in way of explanation with a shrug. "Something's being delivered to Armsmaster today and the boss would be very 'appreciative; if we made sure it didn't make it to him."

"Exactly what's this 'something' the boss wants?" Brian asked, already sounding wary of the job as he grabbed some towels for himself and Taylor.

"Probably Tinker tech, more than that…" She finished the sentence with a shrug, telling them she didn't know.

Brian gave her an even blank look. "He wants us to steal some unknown Tinker device from Armsmaster, the second best Tinker in the world and leader of the local Protectorate? With barely any time to plan it?"

"Yeeeah, that just sounds stupid," Alec said, summing up what they all thought. Taylor in particular, as she would really like to stay on the hero's good side. She was already at the edge of his patience as it was.

"It pays well. Really well. Sixty thousand each well." Lisa said, sounding annoyed over something. "Look, I'd try to sweet talk you into the deal, like usual, but again, time sensitive. Four hours' time sensitive in fact. Extra pay if we can manage to deliver the device to him."

'Deliver to him? As in, in-person?' Taylor wondered as Brian continued to argue with the rest of their group.

"Seriously? He wants us to pull a job off against _Armsmaster_ ," Brian put a heavy emphasis on the man's name, "with only four hours prep time, at best?"

"Then again, that money…" Regent added on, sounding very on board with the idea already.

"Shouldn't be a factor when we have almost no chance of getting away with it." Brian said, sounding as irritated as Alec was wistful, "This isn't like the casino job or the bank where we knew the heavy hitters couldn't get to us before we could get away. This is walking into a PRT squad and having the Protectorate respond as soon as we hit it. If Velocity wasn't there by the time they sent out a call was put in I'd be surprised."

"I love speedsters," Regent said with a faux excitement, "They always skip like stones when I twitch their legs."

Brian growled in frustration. "Not the point."

"Sure it is. If it's just Velocity I can take him. Then we grab the gizmo the boss wants and we bolt."

"Should I take that as a 'yes' from you Alec?" Lisa asked.

"Sure, money's good."

"Brian?"

His jaw tensed. "We should wait for Bitch."

Lisa pushed his flimsy excuse to the side with a wave of her hand. "Wouldn't be the first time we voted without her."

"Fine then. No."

"And now, we must wait for Bitch to break the tie," Regent said slouching back into the coach and getting comfortable as if expecting a long wait.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Lisa said, throwing a pointed look at Taylor, who was chewing at her lip in thought.

That had Alec sit up from his seat and peer over at his teammate. "What? The Dork's going to vote against Grue? Seriously?" Brian himself turned to give her his attention.

Seeing all eyes on her Taylor offered a "Maybe?"

"Maybe?" Alec repeated, trying to edge her into explaining herself.

"It's just…" Pausing for a moment to find a good enough fake reason to hide her real one. "Its good money and there's a decent chance of us getting away if we hit quick…"

"While I'm glad to know my greatness has reassured you, I didn't take you for the greedy type there Dork."

"I'm not. I'm more curious about who our boss is." The rest of the room, the boys at least, just stared at her. Under the pressure of their gaze she elaborated. "Lisa said the boss wants us to deliver it to him, I figured that meant in person. And I would like to know who's backing us. It's been bugging me for a while, especially with the ugly possibilities there are for who he is."

There, truth enough that Lisa wouldn't ping her as an undercover and satisfy the others' questions.

"Pretty sure that's not what he meant but I'm sure he'd be willing if we grabbed the thing." Lisa said after some thought. "I think he was planning on showing himself to us soon anyway."

That was news, great news really. She wasn't sure how much longer she could take pretending like she has been. If she didn't turn herself, and all she knew, over to the Protectorate soon, she didn't know if she'd be able to turn back. She was starting to like the Undersiders too much, getting so used to their company that the idea of turning them in was starting to actually physically hurt.

Then there was how she was getting so used to the crimes, to being a villain. How that little nagging feeling of guilt and unease she had was starting to disappear from the back of her head. How her heart didn't do the little double skip it used to before they set out.

She really had to wonder what that meant.

"Taylor," Brian's voice said, snapping her out of her brief daze. Good thing too, who knew how much Lisa could have gotten from that brief train of thought. "Listen, it's not that I'm not curious too. It's just not enough for me to think this job is worth it."

"I thought it was already agreed upon that my awesomeness was going to save the day."

"Shut up Regent," Lisa said, turning her attention back to Taylor. "You sure about this Taylor?"

"I, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure." Shaking her head, she turned towards Lisa, "How do we do this?"


	2. Chapter 2

Crisis 1.1

There were certain things one avoided in a Cape city like Brockton Bay. Certain situations people knew to avoid if they could or had the chance.

People would flinch around certain things and did their best to avoid what they saw as glaring targets or that would make them glaring targets. Sometimes it was a bit like the old gang days, being careful what color clothes you wore or skin you were in certain areas. But other times the most outlandish things became targets.

Like an armored truck at stop light.

It was like a big honking target screaming "Come get me!" to every crooked Cape in town. Cold sweat would develop on anyone who saw one in their rear view mirror.

Profanity would be slung and prayers would be sent out. All in the hope that somehow the light would hurry up and turn green so they could speed away.

But that day the drivers unlucky enough to stop at Fifth Street weren't given a chance to run away. Instead they were surrounded by a dome of swirling and literally deafening darkness. Separated from the rest of the city's noise, their normal background noise replaced by things a little more ominous. The sound of rumbling growls of mutated and monstrous dogs combined with the buzzing and skittering of countless bugs. It was an offsetting combination, that made one driver panic and try his luck driving blind through the darkness.

Skitter honestly felt guilty as one of Bitch's dogs landed on the hood of his car, giving a firm warning to all within the darkness not to move, effectively trapping the armored truck between the various cars.

It felt like the bank job all over again.

Creating enough fear to control the situation, turning the surrounding people into shields to control the heroes, and then using that control of the heroes to escape. It left a bad taste in her mouth, but from what she could tell it was the safest way to do things. It was the best choice in a bad situation.

She needed to do this job to make it all worth it, to make herself a hero. She just needed a little more time, a little more information and the giant lie that had become her life would be over.

"Skitter, your turn." Lisa – Tattletale, she mentally corrected - said, queuing for her part in the heist.

Ants, roaches and other crawlers she'd collected from across Brocton Bay over two hours' time scuttled out from the shadows and street gutters, surrounding the truck and began the mission Skitter assigned them. They dug into the cracks of the doors and squeezed through air vents, entering the secured vehicle with little difficulty.

"That is still creepy as hell." Regent said in an easy drawl, showing no real care or emotion to add to his words. So she ignored him.

There were seven men in the vehicle, including the driver, and now each one of them were all scrambling to unbuckle themselves to escape the onslaught of biting insects. Armored trucks were designed to stop bullets and rammings, not bugs.

The plan was to force the guards on outside the truck, ambush them via mutated dog and Regent twitches, grab the item and run. Hopefully all would be said and done before the Protectorate could mount a proper response.

The dogs were greeted by startled screams as they landed with harsh thuds. The storm of flying bugs that followed shortly behind them probably didn't help. It was one of the largest swarms she had ever gathered, hoping to make up for their quick and dirty plan with sheer numbers.

And seeing how their targeted truck was shifting back and forth as the squad inside panicked, it was working. Though, Skitter hoped they'd come out sooner rather than later. That way she wouldn't have to bite their more sensitive areas.

It was a nasty thing to do, but they were in a hurry, and she would really rather not be caught before she finished her self-appointed mission.

She needed for this job to succeed.

With that thought in mind she had her bugs bite down just a bit harder, lessening only when they got closer to door. She had to give them all the more incentive to get out of that armored truck.

Metal clunked and devices let out almost distressed sounding beeps as the desperate officers made for their escape. But outside they found not relief but three monstrous dogs.

Despite their pain, despite their panic, the men and women in front of the teens were trained soldiers. They were people who signed up for and dedicated themselves to fighting opponents beyond themselves and the scope of their abilities. It was no surprise that they were able to bypass their panic enough to lift their PRT issued Foam Sprayers.

Though there was a surprise for them, in the form of Regent twitching their muscles, jerking arms off course and jolting their legs out from under them. The Undersiders were lucky enough that the combination of such twitches led to one member of their opposition being foamed to the ground.

Regent was still a key part for them as they attacked the rest of the PRT Squad, ensuring Bitch's dogs weren't foamed down while they literally sat on the bug bite covered officers. The dogs entertained themselves by turning the sprayer nozzles into chew toys.

As they stepped into the back of the truck there was jostling in the front, as Grue dealt with the driver and the last guard in a fog of darkness.

Inside the truck there were three cases. There wasn't supposed to be three. There was only supposed to be one device, one package. Did that mean that the others were booby trapped?

Tattletale didn't seem to pay it much mind as she looked over each case, snapping off a stand peg on each case. "And off goes the tracking devices." She said as she brushed the pegs to the side before turning her attention back to the three guarded cases, "Now let's see what we have here."

It was almost appalling how easily Tattletale opened each brief case. Each one opened with a few taps to the key pads, unlocking codes that were supposedly secure.

She stared at the content of the cases for a good long while, a while that was a bit too long for her teammates comfort.

"Tattletale," Grue's distorted voice called out, "Hurry it up."

"Right, right. Sorry," she said as she closed each case. "They're all part of the package; we gotta grab all of them."

"Fine, whatever. Let's just hurry it up." Grue sounded on edge, Skitter couldn't blame him. He thought the plan was a bad idea from the start. He was certain that a Protectorate counter-attack was going to happen any second.

And he was right.

As she, Tattletale and Regent each took a briefcase, someone pierced through Grue's darkness.

The inky blackness clung to him like smoke as he descended from above, careful of his speed due to literally flying in blind. He was dressed in modernized Grecian armor and lightning crackled from various parts of his wardrobe, most notably his spear.

They knew who he was. He was perhaps the one of the two people out of anyone on the Brockton Bay Hero's roster that the villains were wary of, Dauntless. He was like Lung lite but permanent. Every day he got stronger, better. What worked on him the week before might not work on him the week, or day, after.

Only Armsmaster surpassed him when it came to putting fear in the various gangs.

And they had to get by him.

"Shit, shit, shit," She heard someone mutter. It might have been her or someone else but she wasn't sure.

Dauntless pointed his spear of crackling lighting at them, the weapon growing brighter with the action. "Drop your weapons, put the merchandise on the ground, and put your hands over your head," he said in a practiced tone. He had probably said the line a hundred times before, probably when dealing with small time bangers. But they were parahumans, something to be more wary of.

Something he should have attacked as soon as he arrived on the scene, not that Skitter wasn't grateful he wasn't attacking them. It just didn't make much sense to announce oneself like that to her. Better to take them by surprise and get it over with as quick as he could.

Hopefully it would give them what they needed to get away.

"Bitch!" Grue called out at he blasted a cloud of darkness at Dauntless, who raised his shield of electricity to block it. It was a daunting sight to see the hero sweep a large chunk of the cloud away.

Unfortunately for him his view was soon occupied by a monstrous and mutated dog instead. Brutus, or the dog Skitter thought was Brutus, had jumped up with Bitch on his back and attempted to turn the man who looked like a Greek hero of old into a chew toy.

They slammed into the ground, the asphalt cracking with the action, with Dauntless's shield shoved into the beast's mouth.

"Get on the dogs! Let's go!" Grue's order was almost unneeded as they were all scrambling to the available dogs, the PRT officers underneath letting out breaths of relief as their heavy loads lifted. As the dogs started to bound forward Grue lifted the darkness that once held the street, allowing for the dogs and their riders to see ahead of them.

"Bitch!" Grue called out again, gaining their remaining member's attention as they made their escape.

But as they sped through the now open street and were about to bound onto the roof tops something slammed into them all. The force was light, but enough to knock those carrying a briefcase off their mounts.

Looking up all Skitter could say was, "Crap." There, already zip tying Tattletale's hands together, was Velocity, the speedster Grue knew was going to ruin everything. He and Dauntless must have been patrolling together.

As he moved away from Tattletale her mouth started to move, "How long is it going to take for you to run away from this, huh, Velocity? You ran away once, you going to do it again?"

"I've already been briefed on you, keep your mouth shut and come quietly. There is no need to make this more violent than it already has been."

"Oooh, those words were so rigid… and you hate it. Leaving one service for another must've been tough. Rules and regulations chaining you down, false promises keeping you around. Feeling like you can't go anywhere else."

"You have the right to remain silent, I suggest you use it." His voice was all but a growl as he did her legs too. And with that last word he bolted up from his position and moved towards Skitter.

She tried to summon up her bugs, put a barrier between the two of them, but they were coming too slow and him too fast.

And then, he tripped.

His feet gave out from under him and the momentum he had built up sent him into a tumble along the street.

"Told you I could take him," Regent said cockily from his spot on the ground.

"Yes, yes you did. And if you could keep taking him we would be very grateful," Tattletale responded before holding her tied wrist up for Skitter to see. "Could help me with these please?"

Casting a glance to where the free dogs were holding off Dauntless, with Grue creating distractions, she nodded her head. She wanted out of this whole situation and fast. Unsheathing her knife she made quick work of the plastic ties around her teammate's wrists.

"We need to get out of here before things get worse. A pissed off Armsmaster and the rest of the Protectorate worse," Lisa said as she rubbed her wrist. "Think you can help them out a bit?"

Help them fight a guy that basically had a giant bug zapper for a weapon? That didn't seem like a good idea to her.

"You don't have to do damage, just distract him so we can get the dogs and get out of here." Tattletale turned her head towards Regent and how he was handling Velocity. "Would you just taze him already!"

"Fine," Regent whined as he slowly advanced on the continuingly stumbling Velocity. Taylor had never seen him use his abilities to the extent he was using them. It was a little frightening.

"Don't forget to tie him up after, speedsters get up quick."

"Yes mom."

"Ugh," Tattletale grunted in exasperation before twitching her head towards her fallen case, "Keep an eye on that for me while I make sure he ties him up, alright?"

"Sure," Skitter said absent mindedly, her eyes shifting to the ongoing fight Grue and Bitch were having with Dauntless. It was obvious who was winning, with how the dogs were now limping and smaller in size, and how Grue's darkness slid off of Dauntless's shield.

Tattletale was right; they needed a distraction so they could get out.

She gathered every bug she brought with her and every bug within two blocks she gathered. Every spider, moth, ant, bee and fly she could reach gathered and swarmed, becoming a massive black cloud of jittering and skittering menace.

The cloud twisted and spiraled around the street as it moved and descended onto Dauntless. He tried treating the swarm as if it was Grue's Darkness, but bugs weren't just something you could swipe away with the wind. At least, not a swarm that size.

He was forced to use his spear to burn away the bugs, using almost frantic swipes to chip away at the swarm.

It was enough though, enough time and relief for her teammates to disengage.

But it wasn't enough time for her to get away. Dauntless had cleared a hole in the swarm and, for the first time she had seen him do that night, fired a bolt of electricity from his spear.

She wasn't sure if it was on purpose or by accident but the shot didn't hit any of them. Instead the bolt slammed into the asphalt near her, sending out a mighty wave of electricity that made her hair stand on ends and made her weak in the knees.

"Skitter!" Tattletale called out, her voice frantic. "Drop the fucking case!"

"Wha-" The question was at tip of her lips when her world expanded into black light and blue stars.


	3. Chapter 3

Crisis 1.2

She was drawing.

Her hand finding unfamiliar grace as she traced and outlined a nightmare, a picture of a room with walls made of cold metal so high she could barely see the ceiling. A room filled with filth and horrors.

She could almost smell the rot of which she drew as she tried to force conflicting emotions out of her body. How she felt trapped, unable to escape, she drew it.

She drew a girl trapped within a sea of insects unable to get away, "Oh god, they're everywhere! Oh god, please, Emma!"

Where, in that twisted world, eldritch things reached out for her with countless limbs, "Please, someone, anyone! Help!"

Long finger were drawn reaching out to find a way out of the unescapable room, "Think Taylor, you have to think. There has to be a way out! There has to!"

The girl's eyes drawn in a wide shifty manner, like light in a broken glass, showing that she would break, "Let me out! Let me out! Lemme out! Lemme out!"

Wide lips were drawn to be sewed shut, as her voice could be heard by no one. "My throat hurts. It burns… *hack*"

She looked at the finished product, giving it a scrutinizing gaze before turning to the girl next to her, "What do you think?"

The other girl did not answer, she could not answer. Her all too familiar features drooping and melting from her face as something else began to take shape.

-0-0-0-0-

Taylor woke with a strangled gasp and a cough, as if her lungs were confused whether or not they wanted the air. The strange action was doing nothing to help the pounding in her head.

What had happened?

She remembered Lisa screaming something at her and then... nothing, just a big old void in her memory and a strange dream.

What was with that anyway? She hadn't had a nightmare, much less a dream, about the Locker in what had to be months now. And it was so vivid too, every disgusting horrible thing crisp and clear in her mind.

She tried to rub her temples, hoping to rid herself of the last bits of the thankfully fading dream, only to find her hands bound.

"What?" The word came out as a tiny whisper of a mummer as she shifted her position to see her hands tied tightly in zip ties along with her feet and legs. She did not like the looks of that, or the beaten down warehouse she was apparently in.

How did she get there? Why was she brought there?

And then there was the ever important who?

As in, who had brought her there and who was the girl mumbling not too far from her?

The girl's body was mostly engulfed by a deep red cape with only her bound limbs and what looked like a stylized motorcycle helmet sticking out. So, more than likely another Cape.

Another Cape tied up and tossed into a strange warehouse with no rhyme or reason to be seen. Exactly what had happened while she was unconscious?

"And they're up," a familiar voice said from above. Craning her neck up she could see Regent leaning against the second floor's railing, scepter in one hand and a strange gun in the other. "Have a good nap?"

Taylor swore to herself. If this was another one of his stupid pranks she was going to make his life a living hell for the foreseeable future. She was debating breaking character just to yell at him but the other girl spoke up before she had the chance to really debate the idea.

"You fool!" the other girl bellowed as she struggled to her knees, "You think you have fooled me! But you haven't!"

Regent let out an amused "Oh?" and leaned just a smidge more on the railing, as if he was getting comfortable to hear an interesting story.

"Yes! I know your true identity." In lieu of using her fingers, as they were currently bound with her hands behind her, she pointed at him triumphantly with her chin. Meanwhile Taylor had to blink at the other girl's audacity and the fact she seemed to be all too willing to out a Cape. Even as much as she planning to make Regent suffer for whatever weird prank he was trying to set up she did not want to see him lose the peace a civilian life offered.

But, again, the other girl spoke before she could even debate speaking out. "You're a hero!" And with an answer she did not see coming. "A most cunning plan indeed, a classic one even, dressing up as one of my minions like that but you cannot fool me. For I am, THE TECHNO QUEEN!"

There was an awkward pause at the girl's, the Techno Queen apparently, loud proclamation. The increasingly uncomfortable pause went on for a few more seconds, with each second the Techno Queen's posture growing a little more brittle. Finally she slumped down with a barely audible mumble, "Did someone unplug my machine again?"

"Ooookay, if Ms. Crazy is done I'm going to make a call. That is, unless you have something to add Mr. Mime?" Regent, or the Regent look alike, said. Pausing for a half second waiting for an answer he obviously didn't expect to come. "I didn't think so. Be back in a min."

As Regent left, Taylor was left with an ever growing assumption that what was going on wasn't a prank. At the very least it was nowhere near his usual flavor of joke. She was tempted to think of evil clones, mostly because of recent experience, but the other girl's idea on the disguise made sense. Even if the way she said it didn't

Honestly not wanting to deal with either option, Taylor twisted her fingers in a motion reminiscent to a pair of scissors and cut her way out of her bonds. Rubbing her sore wrist, Taylor stood and did a quick look around of the warehouse.

Her earlier assumption of old and beat down still stood but now she saw something similar to the set up. It was like her lair, but she could spot and name a number of differences between the two locations, a mild relief if anything. Maybe a nearby warehouse? There were certainly enough of them for some crook to use.

As she tried to puzzle through the mystery of where she was her eyes landed on the still struggling Techno Queen. She didn't know if it was because she felt bad for the other cape or if it was because she was really growing into her heroing role. Either way she found she couldn't stand the idea of just leaving the other girl there.

So, moving with the silence granted to her by her Silence Field, she moved towards her fellow prisoner and tapped the Techno Queen on the shoulder. The girl jumped at the touch and was about to shout, if not for realizing who touched her and the silencing finger Taylor kept over her lips.

Using her powers she quickly removed the binds and pulled the girl to her feet. Taylor had a momentary bout of surprise as she noticed the other girl was actually her height, a rare thing. A stupid thing to pause over but she did.

"Thanks." The other girl said with a smile, voice surprisingly quiet. "Now let's get out of here."

Taylor flinched as the girl clasped onto her shoulder and twisted her wrist. There was a pause and the Techno Queen twitched her wrist again, and again. "Is everything down!?" she yelled out in frustration, something Taylor did not appreciate.

So she held her finger up again to her mask's faux lips, demanding silence.

The Techno Queen had the decency to look sheepish. "Sorry." Taylor waved her off and pointed to a rusted looking door at the far wall. After receiving a nod Taylor ushered the two of them quickly towards the target.

But before they could even make it half way to their target their way was cut off by the impact of a trio of monsters. Very familiar monsters.

"Told you I'd be back in a minute."

Well, there went near any chance that they were dealing with someone posing as Regent. There was still a hope but she doubted it. Especially when Bitch's dogs were standing in their way with the rest of the Undersiders were standing at the balcony, looming over them with an intense air.

Grue's leather clad body hidden within his darkness with only skull design of his mask showing.

Tattletale in her tight purple jester outfit, staring down at them through her domino mask with a curious expression on her face.

Bitch, sans the plastic dog mask, eyed them intensely with a growl on her lips. Her dogs circled around them, sniffing the air in a confused manner as they trapped the girls in their routine.

And then there someone else, someone she didn't recognize. A girl with long curly hair dressed in a charcoal black costume that clung to her skin with grey bits of stylized armor protecting her vital areas, her yellow tinted lenses and lanky form giving her an almost inhuman look. The ever growing mass of writhing bugs behind her didn't help the image.

Tattletale whispered something to Grue, something that made him stiffen a bit before returning to his usual posture and stepped next to Regent at the railing. He looked like he was ready to say something but Taylor's companion seemed set on getting the first word in.

"TECHIES! What is the meaning of this betrayal!?" While Taylor was thinking the same thing, or something similar, she once again wondered the sanity of the girl next to her.

"Does anyone have a clue what this girl is talking about?" Regent asked, turning his head to regard his teammates. He was probably looking at Tattletale, who was giving a 'so-so' gesture with her hand, for answers.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Grue's distorted voice answered the Techno Queen's question, ignoring Regent's comment as he got straight to business. "We have a few questions for you two to answer."

"A few blanks to fill in," Tattletale added, using that overly cheery tone she used when she was piecing something juicy together.

Not something Taylor ever liked being on opposing end of.

"What were you doing on Fifth Street?" Grue demanded.

Fifth Street? Taylor had no clue what he was talking about. Last thing she remembered she was getting in costume to meet… Parian? Maybe? Things were cloudy. Still didn't mean she knew what he was talking about.

So, with a wave of her hand she transformed her mask into frown to convey her confusion. Hopefully. She didn't know what was going on but it seemed like her teammates didn't know who she was. Was this what Aisha felt like every time she used her powers?

And if it was, did that mean she and her friends were under some Stranger's or Master's powers?

And how did the girl in the red cape fit in?

"Fifth Street? Today's scheme was supposed to be the Jewelry store on Oak." The Techno Queen mumbled. She seemed to a very audible girl. "What type of game is this Grue!? A coup?! You would dare!"

"Seriously, what is she on? It seems fun." Grue sent Regent a look that made the younger boy hold his hands up in surrender.

"Why did Bitch's dogs pick you up?"

"And drop Skitter every time we told them down." Regent received another glare.

Taylor didn't even have an idea on how to answer that, nor did she appreciate being interrogated by the people she considered her friends. Luckily she didn't have to. "It's because they smell like her, and us. They smell too much alike. It confused the dogs."

"My dogs aren't stupid." Bitch growled out in response.

"I'm not saying they are." Tattletale said with an easy, and excited, air. She was getting close to finishing her puzzle. "I'm saying that they smelled too much like Skitter… Too much like us, enough so to confuse them. Both of them consider us friends even though we haven't met yet…" Tattletale gave a hum as her eyes flashed intensely and her power seemed to go into overdrive, "Let's play a game of name association. If I say the name 'Danny' who does that make you think of?"

Oh, she was not playing this game. She was not going to reveal her identity to two strange capes. One of which who may have been messing with their heads.

"Stop it." Her voice a forced growl, breaking character so she could protect her last bits of family.

Tattletale ignored her words and Regents statement about mimes talking, "Someone close then, someone personal. Not a friend, he's more than that. If I had to guess I'd say, your father?"

The sound of bugs buzzing became louder and agitated, fitting her mood just fine. She was very tempted to mime a bow and arrow at the moment. What the hell was Tattletale trying to do?

"Let's try some other names. How about Winslow?" She heard the sounds of a fist tightening, knuckles cracking, and it wasn't her. Looking to the side she could see the Techno Queen shaking. Somehow whatever she was saying was affecting the other girl too.

"A mixed bag of feeling there, resentment but… moving on. For the both of you, one like it's a distant memory. That's good. Now let's try another!"

"What do you think you're doi-"the Queen was interrupted.

"Annette, does that ring any bells?"

"Tattletale." The words sounded like it came from everywhere, the voice coming off in an odd buzzing tone that shook the air with its angry hiss.

Tattletale was unbothered by the voice; she just turned and smiled at the bug girl behind her. "Thanks! You just gave me the last bit I needed!" What did that mean? "I'm pretty sure I know what's going on now. But first, introductions!"

With a twirling grand gesture she pointed to her two prisoners. "Taylor Hebert and Taylor Hebert, meet Taylor Hebert."

-0-0-0-0-0-

 _THE TECHNO QUEEN_

She had never been there before, the original Undersider base. It was… smaller than she had thought. Nowhere near as grand as the home she had set up for them in her reality.

And wasn't that a trip! Alternate realities!

It was obviously possible, shoved in their face by the Aleph Media Trade companies, but theoretically alternate realities as close as the one she was in shouldn't be possible to communicate with or travel to. Her very presence there ripped apart a number of Dr. Haywire's early papers to shreds.

She had read more than a few to see about crossing into a reverse reality.

She really wished she had some of her equipment so she could test a few things, like how her two counter parts had such differing power-sets from her own. Bug control and telekinetic shaping? What could have caused such a divergence from her own Tinker powers?

According to a number of papers and databases (that really should have been more secured) owned by the PRT, it all came down to the Trigger event. Something about that moment in their lives differentiated from the others. What could it have been?

She could guess, what with a Master power and a Shaker/Blaster combination, but it would be much more efficient if she asked.

But that was rude, wasn't it?

Breaking edict in the unwritten rules of Capes, not that she ever put much weight into those herself.

"Techno Queen?" A familiar voice but she knew it belonged to a stranger. It was almost depressing to look up at Brian and not truly know him, depressing enough she couldn't even pretend she cared about the proper pronunciation of her Cape name. She would have killed for a Queenie in this foreign environment. "Here."

"Thank you," she said as she took the cup of hot chocolate. It was a bit too hot but she would take its comfort for now. Looking around the room she almost wished she'd kept her mask on, even as much as it was needed to clear things up. Things were blurry without her mask's lenses.

Sitting on the sofa with her, shifting rather uncomfortably, was the Taylor who apparently liked to cross dress. A decent disguise but it hurt the Taylors' collective pride that they were so easily confused for a man, even if it was by design. She called herself Marceau in costume.

A name she was going to have to get used to without her mask. Yelling out "Taylor" was now just a recipe for confusion.

The other Taylor, Skitter, was sitting on a arm chair further away from them. She didn't blame her; it was disturbing seeing your near identical twins looking back at you. It made for a rather awkward silence.

One she couldn't stand and decided to break with her observations. "So where's Imp?" She was tempted to add Jailbird into that question but she knew these other versions of her weren't her and that they more than likely didn't save Paige.

They were still low class villains who didn't know how to enjoy the game. Which was to be expected, since they still worked for Coil. Probably. She wasn't sure just how different the worlds were yet.

"I don't know any Imp, do you guys know an Imp?" Regent said from where he was lounging, shifting his head towards his other teammates. He got resounding 'no's from them.

"Maybe she didn't Trigger here," Marceau suggested, intriguing and relieving her with information that Imp didn't belong singularly to her reality. This spoke of constants that existed in the different realities despite the differences, like the Undersiders seemed to be. Things that appeared and interacted no matter how many of the variables changed.

"Okay, now I'm curious, who's Imp?"

"Not important," Tattletale said with a wave of her hand, dismissing Regent once again. "Interesting and something to ask later, but right now I think we have more important things to think about."

Like how they got there.

The Undersiders had given her and Marceau a brief run down earlier, a job ending with a piece of Tinker tech overloaded by Parahuman generated electricity. Was it the device's intention to create such an effect, or was it the abnormal electricity from Dauntless's spear?

If they let her look at the device maybe she could figure it out, find a way to get home. Her real home, her Brockton Bay. But there were more than a few trust issues in the room.

"I don't think you two were the only ones that got dropped off here."

"What!?" She found herself yelling, her Cape persona naturally leaking into her voice. And, luckily, Techno Queen wasn't the only one surprised by the news.

That was something she really should have mentioned earlier. Something the local Grue was more than willing to point out.

"Yeah, sorry. Things are just starting to piece themselves together, you know?" She explained with a shrug, as if it wasn't a big deal. "There are at least one or two others here, I think. One of them flew away and another one was dragged away by what sounded like a dog. Maybe one of Bitch's dogs from wherever that other Taylor is from."

A few glances went towards Bitch, everyone in the room wondering how she would respond. They weren't disappointed with the way she seemed to straighten up and her eyes seemed to narrow. "We are finding them."

"That would be the intention," Lisa said. "We just need to figure out how. Like where they would go." She gave a very pointed look towards the three Taylors in the room.

"I'd usually be here…" There was a pause, as if she was debating something. Eventually she seemed to drop it. "Or home."

"Same, except my own base or lab."

The local Taylor, Skitter, was silent for a long moment. Finally she stood up, bugs buzzing in agitation, "I need to make a phone call."

As she rushed into the kitchen the dots started to connect for the rest of the room.

The first place any other version of Taylor Hebert would go to would be home, where their dad was. Where the local Taylor's dad was.

The ringing of the cellphone was almost deafening as they all waited for her dad to pick up. "Dad! Dad I need you to listen! There…" There was a shout on the other end, one that interrupted her mid-sentence and forced her to pause. "… What do you mean you're daughter is already there?"


	4. Chapter 4

Crisis 1.3

-0-0-0-

 _The Composer_

No one liked waking up from a nightmare, especially when they awoke in an unfamiliar room. Even more so when the unfamiliar room belongs to people who had promised to arrest you, given the chance.

It was an uncomfortable situation that none of the nurses or doctors seemed to pick up on. It was admirable in a way, them keeping up with their jobs despite what should have been, at least, a majorly awkward situation.

Maybe she owed that to their professionalism or more likely she owed it to her costume's paint having somehow dissipated, leaving only her plain canvas white outfit. It was the costume and persona of Acoustic over the identity of The Composer, leaving her as the follower rather than a leader. Convenient.

Preferable even.

They allowed her to keep her MP3, they even got her a legal pad and a few pencils when she asked for something to draw on. They were even keeping her civilian identity safe by allowing to keep her flu mask on. It was nice to know that her Reapers had earned a bit of Cape Rules when it came to secret identities. Everything was relatively nice, for a gilded cage.

Despite all the smiles she received, all the care she was given, she was being watched as if she were a felon. They could have been less obvious about it and just left the surveillance to the noticeable camera in the corner of her med room, but no, they had to add guards. Obvious guards at that, ones that would pace back and forth in front of her door for what had to be hours. They reminded her of a pendulum from an old grandfather clock.

An idea she had made a quick doodle of. It was on the page right after the drawing of the nightmare. She looked at said picture with a little apprehension. She wasn't one for such morbid art but she found sketching out her dreams let her expand her art in ways she couldn't see before.

Still though, the scene was a bit much. It had a bit of a surreal and Meta sense to it, depicting herself showing a picture of a trapped and tortured girl to a young woman with a melting face. Dreams were supposed to mean something, weren't they? If they did she had to wonder what that one meant.

"Ms. Acoustic?" A woman in PRT garb called from the mouth of the door, "If you're ready, please follow me."

With an easing breath Taylor stood and began to follow the woman down the PRTs narrow halls. She idly noticed that the building was very plain, the word spartan didn't even cover how plain she felt the building was. She had thought Grunge had got the inside of the building too, they must have removed all his hard work. Shame.

After a few minutes of turning down hallways that looked exactly the same and up an elevator, that looked like it was designed more for moving equipment instead of people, they arrived to a hallway filled with doors that had the word 'interview' lamented to their surfaces. She was sure the word 'interview' was supposed to be comforting but she knew and felt otherwise.

Even as the door was opened for her she dug into her mind to remember how Grunge told her to handle the PRT, how he instructed both Composer and Acoustic to deal with the questioning. Stay calm, don't be confrontational, speak as little as possible, and only ask for a lawyer when you feel cornered.

She played those rules over in her head a few more times as she took her seat in the very plain room. All there was were stark white walls and a table. She'd always thought there was going to be a two way mirror. She guessed one couldn't always trust what was seen on TV.

She sat there in the bit too bright room by herself for about five minutes before someone walked in, a sharply dressed man with a stiff back and a smile she was sure was meant to be charming.

"Hello there, Ms. Acoustic. I'm glad to see you're doing better." He greeted like he was a concerned acquaintance, sounding a bit too fake and chummy to her ears. Was he supposed to be good cop? What was bad cop going to be like?

"Thank you." She said as politely as she could, falling back onto Grunge's advice with the awkward as she tried to handle her surreal situation.

"We were quite surprised to see you there, taking a nap in the middle of a Cape fight. If you don't mind me asking, exactly what were you doing there?" Was that supposed to smooth? Friendly? Frankly this guy was ridiculous.

"I don't know. All I remember is waking up in your hospital wing." Nice, vague, and to the point. She wasn't keen on giving them any info on her Reapers.

"Really, nothing?" The man asked and received an affirmative nod, "That's disappointing. How about the events leading up to that, the last thing you remember?"

"Getting dressed and heading out to meet some friends."

"And these friends would be?" he stretched out the e too much for her likeing but she answered his question anyway, despite how obvious the answer should have been. Her group wasn't that bad after all. Everything they did, up until their fights with the ABB, were misdemeanors at best. Misdemeanors that they could not connect to her or hold her on.

"The Reapers."

The man quirked an eyebrow, curiosity and confusion open on his face. Weren't interrogators supposed to be stone faced? Wasn't there supposed to be an art form to how they did things? "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with your group."

It was her turn to raise an eyebrow, "Really?" She barely noticed it, the subtle change in posture and tone. The difference between Acoustic and Composer thinning just a little, she had to make the conscious effort not to fully slip into her other persona.

How could he not have heard of her group, how could he not have heard of her Reapers? Did he not have eyes? Did he not have ears? Did he not see the murals and landscapes that littered their city's streets? How their music and voices reached the ears of so many?

He was either deaf and blind or oblivious to an obnoxious level.

"Really," He said with a nod, "Is your group a new gang?"

Was he trying to insult her?

"We are not a gang." She felt her temper start to rise a bit at that. She wasn't nurturing thugs, she was creating a movement.

"That's what many say but in the end that's all they are." She decided yes, he was trying to piss her off. And she wasn't going to take it if she did not have to.

"Lawyer."

"This is not that type of situation Ms. Acoustic." The man said, the last bits of his façade of a friendly questioner disappearing. "Right now, as far as we know, you don't have the right to invoke a Lawyer."

"And exactly what does that mean?"

He was silent for a long moment, tapping his finger gently against the table. "Let's just say things are… complicated and we need your help to make sense of it. Co-operation would be appreciated. Now let's try going over your statements again. What was the last thing you remember before waking up?"

-0-0-0-0-

 _Banshee_

The most devastating part of her power wasn't her strength, her force field, or even her power to manipulate sound like a plaything. In all truth and by her opinion the most versatile and useful of her powers was her hearing.

That perfect hearing that circumference dozens of meters around her. Hearing that allowed her to ease drop through the interrogation room they were keeping her in. She heard every footstep and bit of gossip in the near entirety of the PRT building. She could still remember the NDAs she had to sign because of the ability when they found out.

Still, she had to appreciate it. It comforted her to know what was going on around her. Especially when it looked like she was being placed under Master/Stranger protocols, or arrested. The difference between the two was very slim.

When she had first awakened in the PRT infirmary she had found herself handcuffed with Brute class restraints and was asked some very pointed questions from the medical staff that had nothing to do with her health. She blamed he armor honestly; Glenn still scowled whenever he saw it.

After the unofficial questioning and medical checks were done she was taken to one of the 'interview' rooms for some more on the books questioning. During the trip she could hear whispers, pieces of conversation taken out of context and used to build a picture.

So far she had been able to infer that the Undersiders, Lisa's old team, had hit a transport carrying some Tinker tech Armsmater was going to examine. When Velocity and Dauntless arrived to intervene they made a break for it. As the Undersiders made a run for it a bolt of Dauntless' lightning caused the Tinker device to activate in Skitter's, whom she was assuming was Tattletale's replacement, hand.

Immediately after a distortion was reported and six other possible parahumans appeared seemingly out of thin air, some of them leaving nearly seconds after appearing using various means. Her best guess to what happened was that the Tinker device had a Stranger effect to it, one that effected memories to those within a range. A range she and a few others were included in.

She hoped, but didn't hold out for much, that none of the other Wards were caught in the blast.

As she was placed, rather firmly by a guy who must not have paid too much attention to the Brute segments of the PRT training course, she felt awkward almost instinctually. She had never expected to see herself in such a situation, at the opposite side of the table. To be the person being interrogated instead of the one who listened in. It was… odd. Almost disorienting.

She was questioned by a PRT agent she didn't know and she answered his first question readily. He asked for her name so she gave him her codename, status in the Wards and the serial number she forced herself to remember. Exactly how she was supposed to report herself at the beginning of a debriefing or, as she was pretty sure of at this point, a Master/Stranger situation. That stopped any further questions and a few words from his earbud had him heading out the room with barely a word.

She could hear why, quick words being spoken from Armsmaster to Piggot. Questioning each other if they believed she was lying and Armsmaster saying he was checking before he left the room, his footsteps clacking closer to her by the second.

Even as he walked away she could hear people in the room he formerly occupied speaking.

"Do you think Dragon's theory is right?" From the slight accent she could guess it was Miss Militia.

"I find ignoring any possibility when dealing with parahumans is a foolish mistake." Taylor was fairly certain the new voice belonged to Director Piggot, "And even if she's wrong any information we can get on this situation is invaluable, especially since the other one isn't giving us much."

Taylor wondered what that meant. What could have been so out there that people who routinely dealt with everything from the unlikely to the impossible on a weekly basis pause for thought? And who was this other one that the Director mentioned? Another Ward caught in the blast? Her train of thought was interrupted as the door to her room all but slammed open to reveal a familiar figure in blue and silver power armor.

"They say you claim to be a Ward." Armsmaster said with his voice gruff, as usual, but the way it sounded was different. It wasn't the same exasperated and unsociable curtness she was used to, instead it was the gruff sound he made when dealing with a possible hostile. As if he saw her as an enemy.

It didn't feel right.

As bad as he was with people he treated them… fairly, professionally. They were his allies, or close enough, not his enemies. Not suspects. Even at his most insensitive, at his most invasive, he was better than this. When she found the Stranger or Master who did this, who made her friends and teammates forget her, she was going to make them pay.

"Yes." She said evenly, repeating her codename, the series of numbers they'd forced her to remember along with the phrase of the week that was supposed to help clear up the situation. It didn't.

Stupid Master/Stranger protocols. What was the point of them if people weren't going to listen or believe you?

"That's not this week's code phrase." He said flatly, causing Taylor to mentally curse. How was she supposed to prove herself to the man if nothing she did made him believe her?

It frustrated her to the point she had to force herself to ask, "What do you want me to do? I'm following protocol and you don't believe me. What do I have to do to get you to listen?"

Armsmaster was quiet for a moment, time lapsing into the uncomfortable, before saying "The matter will be brought under review later. For now there are still questions for you to answer."

"Like what?"

"What do you remember before waking up in the hospital wing?"

"I got ready for patrol with Gallant and was about to leave the building before everything went black. I saw some stars and then I woke up in the infirmary." She said quickly, giving him the cliff notes version as he was known to like.

Of course Armsmaster had a problem with it, "Gallant isn't scheduled for patrol until the day after tomorrow."

"It's what happened." She said, her voice conveying all her irritation and frustration.

"So you say." He said, sounding disagreeable as ever. "Certain facts aren't lining up to meet your statement."

"Like what?"

"Besides your code phrase being vastly wrong and your costume making you look like a villain?" She was almost certain he was raising an eyebrow under that stupid visor of his. "Neither the PRT nor Dragon have any record of you."

She stifled any of the annoyance or anger that rose from the shot at her armor down and instead focused on that one bit of information Armsmaster was offering her. She had to, because what he just told her was impossible. Because what he described was impossible.

She knew the PRT had records of her, and if they did so did Dragon. They had digital and paper copies of her recruitment, the stats from her power testing, every report she made after patrol. They had every bit of her life since she joined the Wards written down, and not just for bureaucratic purposes but for security.

Security for when a Stranger or a Master, or a Tinker who could imitate the effects, decided to muck with people's memories. It was a way to verify that yes the person wasn't lying about being an ally, or those saying they were a friend was really Stranger trying to get into their facilities.

For her not to exist on either database was next to impossible. People would have more luck stealing the information than deleting or altering it. From what she understood every Tinker employed by the PRT helped add a layer of security to their networks as a form of initiation. And Dragon's files were Dragon's; Taylor couldn't imagine someone hacking her computers.

He had to be messing with her, testing her. Seeing if she was willing to keep up her "Lie", she would have thought his Lie detector could have settled that by now.

"I am a Ward." She said forcefully. She may not have like how things were handled at times but she liked the people and their cause. She would even say she was proud of being a member of the organization. Or maybe it was something different. Maybe it wasn't them under the effect of a parahuman, maybe it was her.

"I believe you believe that." He said, "And you are helping yourself by telling me this. You just have to keep on answering my questions."

She was silent for a moment before she answered, "What do you want to know?"

"Let's start with your name."

"…. No."


	5. Chapter 5

Crisis 1.4

-0-0-0-

 _Starfield_

She was awakened by softly whispered words. Words that could twist a mind and collapse it past sanity. And, as always, she took comfort in them. Allowing them to whisk away the after thoughts and sour taste her dream had left her.

"Aria, Melody… Rest?" she questioned, her voice sounding surprisingly slurred, the name of her new friend almost escaping her. She hadn't felt that disoriented in a while, her head felt like it would never stop spinning. "Wha's goin on?"

" _Taylor_!" A dozen femine voices spoke as one in what could only be called a musical tone, a sound that could only be Aria. " _Tekeli-li, are you alrigh_ t?"

"I think… where are we?" She asked, head shifting back and forth to look at the rooftop they were apparently on. She didn't recognize any of the nearby buildings and a few things on the rooftop seemed suspiciously chewed on. She was going to let that go for the moment, as she was more worried about what had happened.

" _We do not know_ ," Melody's voice said. " _We just got you away from… whatever happened_."

"And what happened?" Her mind strained to remember, to look back at her last memory and see what had happened. "All I remember was that we were about to go on patrol again and then…. I don't know. Then there was a big black light." How did that even work? Light was not supposed to be black.

" _And a bunch of blue stars_ ," Aria added, " _Yeah, we remember that too. It didn't feel nice_."

" _It hurt_ ," Melody admitted with Rest copying her last word, " _and then we, well you, were somewhere else. On a street filled with smoke and you were not responding. So I flew us away_." Melody flexed her released wings; stretching them and making Taylor realize she wasn't in control of her friend's free limbs. Not a big deal really, she usually let them control the released limbs unless she needed them; she was more worried that something had knocked her out. She didn't even think that was possible anymore!

She stood up with a stagger, something else to worry about, and took stock of herself. There were no new holes in her clothing or skin so it probably wasn't an attack, a direct one anyway. A mind attack? Like the ones those Master and Stranger class Parahumans supposedly did?

Taking control of Melody's wings she stretched out the limbs in an almost yawn like fashion as they literally grabbed and clawed threw the air, lifting her into the sky and giving a view of her home city in the light of the setting sun.

It should have been a beautiful sight, seeing towering buildings glistening in a sheet of freshly fallen snow. But she saw no snow and the sun was well on its way to setting. What she saw instead were buildings gutted apart, streets distorted by some strange effects that she had to squint her figurative eyes at to understand, and areas of the city just up and out missing. It looked like a war zone!

What had happened?

Was it why she was unconscious?

Was her dad alright?

That last question of a thought spurred her into movement, her borrowed wings moving through the air with a renewed purpose. "Dad!" She didn't think she'd ever find Melody's wings to be too slow for but at that moment in time she could only imagine the most horrible of things. Things that made her push the wings harder than she ever had before.

" _Taylor! Taylor! What is wrong?_ " Melody tried to call out only to be ignored for the frantic and imaginary race Taylor was having. She had to get home. She had to.

To her relief her home and neighborhood seemed to be untouched by whatever craziness that had happened. That still didn't mean she still wasn't feeling a gut tearing fear for her father. If he wasn't there she wasn't sure what she'd do.

She landed silently in their backyard, quickly retracting her friends' limbs back into the other side of her portal. Her face was barely slapped on and healing over when she slammed the back door open. "Dad!" She yelled needlessly as the man had been sitting patiently in the kitchen with a cup of warm coffee in his hand, formerly in his hand.

Hot brown liquid spilled and spread over the table top as the surprised man scampered away from the table. Wiping the hot liquid off him in a desperate attempt to stop it from soaking in he looked up at his frazzled daughter, "Taylor?"

He had barely gotten her name out before he found himself in a surprisingly tight embrace. "You're okay." Her words were muffled from his sweater but he heard her all the same.

The man didn't seem to know what to do for a few brief seconds, shocked by the sudden contact and rare hug, but eventually his arms found their way to their proper place. "I-is everything alright?"

Taylor almost screamed at him, to tell him things weren't alright. How could things be okay when the city looked an Endbringer had rolled through?

Was that what happened?

"Taylor, where are your glasses kiddo?" He asked softly, as if he were trying not to scare her away. He was probably right to.

One of her hands unwound themselves from the hug in response to his question, fingers tracing the side of her face for the familiar frames. They weren't there, but she knew where they were.

They were inside her pouch pocket with her original eyes. Which she was pretty sure was not something he wanted to hear, so she fudged the details. "In my pocket."

He gave her a look she couldn't place, probably wondering why she had them there instead of on her face. But he seemed to let it go as he took a look at her and her clothes. The ones she knew she wasn't wearing earlier that day and were curiously covered in dirt and grime. What had Aria and Melody done with her body when they were dragging her away? "What happened?" he asked again, his voice just as soft as before.

What happened? She didn't know, hence the panicking. She wished she knew, she really did, but all she had was a big blank in her mind. A blank that she could not fill, besides some images of stars that weren't her own and a very strange dream, and it was worrying her. But she wasn't willing to voice all of that to her dad or more accurately she felt she couldn't. Like it was too much to unload, especially with how close it was to her Cape life. The life she hadn't told him about yet.

So instead she shrugged, hoping he could divine some meaning from the gesture.

He did, but it only led to some more pointed questions. Was she hurt anywhere, sore? Where had she been? Did she remember who she was with? He had a lot of questions, a good chunk of which she could not answer. But she was able to answer enough to bring down some of his worries, but certainly not all.

And apparently not enough as she had just barely stopped him from calling the police. "Damn it Taylor, what do you want me to do?" He wasn't quite yelling but it was the loudest she'd heard his voice in a while, if she didn't count the hospital. "You come home in a frenzy and you're not telling me what's wrong! What else am I supposed to do when… when something horrible could have happened to you?"

She was struck still from how defeated he sounded with those last words. She didn't really know what to say beyond what she had already said, "I'm fine dad, really. No pain or bruises, nothings wrong, I promise."

"Then why won't you tell me what happened? Or why you came in here in such a rush and basically tackled me?" His hand mussed his thinning hair in frustration, "You don't talk to me or tell me what's wrongs, I have to hear to it second hand. Always. I had to hear it from your teachers that things are still not going well at school."

They called her dad about that? Or did he call them? Was the school really seemed to be trying to keep its promise? Even if it wasn't much it was nice to know some changes were being made.

"Taylor, why have you been skipping class?"

What? That's what they called him about? Not the bullying, not about Emma or the bitch pretending to be a hero? No it was about her skipping classes. Something she rarely did but no more than any other student, and that wasn't even getting into any of the gangers' habits.

"I haven't!" She paused and amended that statement, "Not much anyway, only a few classes, definitely not enough to get a call."

"Don't lie to me Taylor," he said, his voice just as frustrated as her own but far more restrained. "They say you skipped the whole month, the whole month Taylor. You've missed major tests, project due dates, homework… They're saying you might fail, if you haven't already."

Taylor wanted to scream out in frustration. They were behind it, she was sure of it. She didn't know how but those three managed to make it look like she wasn't going to school. Why did they have to mess with her life like that? Why did they have to keep on tearing down every little bit of good she tried to build?

"Dad, you got to believe me, I've been going!" She implored, "I don't know how they did but they're behind this!"

"Who Taylor? Who could have made all these teachers say you weren't there, to say you didn't do the work?" He asked her almost immediately back, his voice just as coaxing as her own. He wanted to know, he wanted to help.

But her stupid mouth would not form the names, leaving him only with an awkward and frustrated pause that left him looking more defeated than when they started the conversation.

"I called the school to get an update on how you were doing, and they said you hadn't been to class in some time, and I didn't know what to do. I just- I felt completely lost. I called your Gram."

Taylor stood stunned at that statement. Gram was her mom's mother, an austere woman who'd never fully approved of Taylor's dad as a match for her daughter. It couldn't have been easy for him to make that call. A painful call if anything.

Had her secrets and lies, no matter how few or serious, really have driven him that far?

"She convinced me that maybe I've been too focused on being your ally, and not focused enough on being your parent. If she'd told me that a week ago, I would have hung up on her. But after talking to your school, realizing how badly I failed you-"

"You didn't fail me," she told him, her voice breaking a bit from emotion.

"I did. It's clear that whatever we've been doing hasn't been working, if you're in this situation, if you can't talk to me. No more secrets, no more half-truths. So we're going to stay here all night if need be. I'll even call off work tomorrow if I have to, but we're going to talk."

"I want to talk," Taylor said honestly. "But it's… hard." So much to tell, but what should she share and what should she continue to hide?

"Take your time," he said earnestly, retaking his seat and gesturing for her to take her own. Though he seemed to regret his actions as still warm coffee soaked into his pants. "I'll be right back. Just, just stay here."

She did, taking the offered seat and let her mind roll over what she should tell him.

Should she tell him about Emma? About Sophia? How no matter what they did Mr. Barnes and the PRT would be in their way?

Or should she tell him about her friends? Talk to him about her powers? Explain to him the only bright spots that had come into her life in a very long time?

She was obviously more comfortable with the second, to give him good news instead of bad, but he wanted to help. He wanted to fix things for her as best he could and giving good news wasn't the way to give him that, was it?

She must have been quiet for a bit too long because her dad called out her name as she mulled over the two options, trying to decide what was best. "I'm fine dad, just... thinking."

"Okay." Was all he said, leaving her as he sat in his now clean seat waiting not quite patiently for her to speak. And after a few minutes Taylor started to undo her shoe.

As she removed the shoe she started to talk. "Dad, there's something I need to tell you. Something I've been hiding from you." The sock came next only to be snagged on something, it took Taylor a few more pulls to dislodge the snag and present him with her naked foot.

There was something in it, a dozen something's. They were small, circular and with a dull metallic shine.

"Tacks?" he thought out loud with a hint of horror in his voice.

His horror filled thoughts were interrupted as Taylor started to pull one out, to its full two inch length. A two inch nail, not a tack, was in his daughter's foot. One of dozens.

As that thought started to stir and settle in his mind Taylor said something that he couldn't make out. He was about to ask her to repeat herself when something slim and in a color resembling green started to squirm its way out of her foot, widening the hole and pushing the other nails aside as it emerged from his daughter's skin like a worm or snake.

To make things worse whatever was emerging had an eyeball suddenly appear on it, an eye that looked straight at him. In the surreal horror of the situation he was proud to say he managed to hear his daughter's next words.

"Dad, I'm a superhero."

He almost didn't register the words, he blamed that partly as the tentacle with an eyeball sticking out of Taylor's foot literally waved at him, but in the end he heard it. He heard it but again his mind felt distant, distracted, twisted.

It took a full minute and his daughter calling his name to drag him back to reality. "For how long?" he managed to ask, head shaking away emotions he would just push off for shock. Shock at the news of his daughter having powers and shock of said display of powers.

"A little over a month, I think." She said with a bit of a shrug, "I've had my powers since the hospital."

"That long," he mumbled. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Again she shrugged. "I don't know. I was just worried how you'd react."

"Because your power somehow involves driving nails into your feet?" His voice wasn't deadpan but the flat tone he said it in, a forced tone to hide a number of emotions, came close.

Taylor shifted as if embarrassed, resting her now thankfully tentacle free foot against her knee. "Ah, those are just so my friends know what's up from down."

Danny was almost afraid to ask. "Friends?"

Still seemingly embarrassed and obviously uncomfortable or unsure how to explain things to her father she answered his question. "Yeah, um, my power kinda makes me into a portal and on the other side I have friends. Like Aria." Again the tentacle emerged from the sole of her foot and gave Danny a wave.

It was as disturbing to see the second time as it was the first. It again took him a few seconds to process the appearance of the thin limb. "So your friends are aliens?"

"I guess. They don't really remember much about themselves but that's what we're guessing. Oh," She said in sudden realization. "There's also Melody and Rest… I would introduce you but that mean making a bigger hole…"

"And to make a bigger hole you'd have to cut more into yourself?" he half asked, connecting dots from the bits of his daughter's powers from what she had shown him. He really did not like the mental image that was forming.

"It's not as bad as it sounds!" She said in a rush. "I heal quick so it's not a problem. I don't even really get hurt anymore."

"That's… a relief," he said, unsure of her definition of hurt considering her apparent willingness for self-harm.

Though despite his obvious reservations Taylor smiled as if she had reassured him. "I haven't gone out much yet but it has come in handy."

"Is that why you're…" he gestured to her, eyes looking pointedly as her grimy clothes and hair.

"I think so, but I can't remember," Taylor said, frustration clear on her face. "Apparently there was explosion and Melody had to fly me away, but that's all we have."

Danny's mind momentarily side stepped the 'We' in his daughter's statement, as so far he wasn't sure he liked what he saw. Nor did he like the idea of his daughter, who just tried to reassure him of her durability, apparently got caught in an explosion that left her unconscious for god only knows how long. The war with the ABB, while winding down, was still in progress and who knew how many of that madwoman's bombs they still had to throw around.

"Damn it Taylor, please don't tell me you went out alone," Danny demanded only to have his daughter avoid eye contact.

"I wasn't exactly alone."

"Your 'friends' don't count. Jesus Taylor this is why they started that Ward program, so things like this won't happen." He had barely finished his sentence before Taylor started shouting down the idea.

"I can't!" She denied. "I tried already. I talked to Miss Militia, had lunch with a few of the Wards, and sparred with Aegis. Everything seemed so great and then that, that, bitch had to show up and ruin things. I just can't get away from them no matter where I go."

Danny let Taylor vent and take a few breaths to calm down as his mind reaches back to days earlier, to when Taylor and Emma had their fight. To the moment Shadow Stalker rapidly appeared to break up the fight and how she instantly sided with Emma instead of reprimanding both. Something that through his new perspective didn't seem as unbiased as he initially thought.

Reaching out he took Taylor's hand. "One of your bullies were there?" Despite his suspicions he had to have her confirm it for him, make it more real.

She only nodded her head and Danny thought that was enough of an answer. Honestly he'd gotten more out of her than he'd ever dreamed. He'd honestly half expected the night to end with shouting. He was glad it hadn't.

"How about you go upstairs and wash up? I'll fix us up something to eat and we can talk more, if you want. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah," Taylor said with a small nod. "That sounds good." She offered him a small smile that gave him a bit of hope for their crumbling relationship.

But as she stood to head for her room and the shower Danny remembered something. "Hold up a sec kiddo," he called out as he stood from his seat and made his way to the door. As he pulled out a series and fished for the right one he received a look from his daughter. "I, uh, saw this night going a very different way."

Taylor wasn't sure how she felt about that but she let it go, for the moment. Things were going well and she didn't want to risk things. So, instead, she just continued her walk to her room.

" _Taylor? Is everything okay?_ " Melody asked, sounding tentative. Rest asked the same question a second later: sometimes Taylor wondered if the little copycat only spoke up so often just to make noise.

"Everything's fine. Great actually." She admitted as she dug through her closet and drawers for clothes. She found it a bit odd as she saw clothes she never remembered getting. Maybe they were just old clothes that just now resurfaced in the face of laundry day? "My dad and I just had a talk, and it went well."

" _That was your dad **?**_ " Aria asked, voices sounding excited. **"** He looked a little weird but kinda looked like you. All pink skinned and with fur on his head."

" _By that definition, Aria, then every other human we have seen looks like Taylor_ ," Melody tried to reprimand gently, only for it to excite her adoptive sister more.

" _They do!_ " Aria insisted, " _But in different colors! And don't you worry Taylor you're still the prettiest of them all._ "

"Thanks Aria," Taylor said with a bit of sarcasm as she entered the bathroom and started the shower. She thought it best to let her friend have those delusions. It could serve as a nice ego boost someday. Speaking of looks she better switch her eyes out, if for nothing else than to look a bit more normal for her dad.

As she finished the process and stepped into the shower she was pretty sure she heard the phone ring followed by her father hush-yelling into the receiver. Not an uncommon thing, she had heard it a dozen times before. Her father wasn't as quiet with some of his work phone calls as he would have liked.

She asked about it when she came down a few minutes later, hair still wrapped in a towel.

"Just a prank call. Don't worry about it," he said in a tight voice, obviously upset over what was said. She wanted to ask him more about it but he forced the conversation onwards, saying he made them a few sandwiches. Nothing fancy but still delicious to eat, even if it was eaten in a good amount of silence.

They still tried to talk, her dad asking a few more questions about her powers and friends, but there was something awkward about it. It worried her a bit.

In the midst of another bout of silence Taylor couldn't help but notice the sounds of crickets. They were being unusually loud that night, enough so for her to comment on it.

It wasn't even a moment later when they heard the front door slam open and footsteps rushing towards the kitchen. Taylor was already standing at the sound of the door, her feet trying to carry her towards the counter that held her knives but seeing who entered the room made her pause.

It was her.

It was literally her, another Taylor Hebert just standing there in the door way looking as shell shocked as she felt. Distantly she heard her dad's chair skirt back but she couldn't pay it any mind. She had to focus on the person in front of her.

Her copy.

She had heard, read about it on PHO, about people who could change how they look, even imitate other people. But seeing it was surreal and disorientating. Though she did spot a few errors, like the length of her other's hair was a bit longer and she seemed to have more muscle than Taylor ever had. Still though, it was a very good imitation.

Her copy recovered quicker and the sounds of crickets returned, louder than before and accompanied by a myriad of other sounds that would have given most people chills up their spines. "Step away from the knives," the copy said slowly and deliberately.

As much as Taylor wanted to say no, to just grab a knife and let Aria loose, she couldn't. Her dad was there. If she moved what would her other do? Would she attack Taylor's dad while she made a move that sealed his fate? Or would she, hopefully, lunge at Taylor instead?

A fifty-fifty chance she wasn't willing to bet on, especially when her mind went to the more famous shape shifters in Brockton Bay. So she stepped back, not by much but she did.

"Taylor?" her dad started, sounding out of depth and she didn't blame him.

The other Taylor answered him all the same, "I'll explain later dad, like I said earlier it's hard to go over in a few minutes."

"The phone call…" he said a bit numbly, a tone she did not like hearing from him. Especially not in such a dangerous situation.

"What do you want?" Taylor growled out, trying to dig her nails hard enough into her palm to break skin. She wasn't having much luck, she was afraid that her nails counted too much as her to get past her skin. She started shifting her weight hoping to wiggle the nails there enough to open a tear large enough for her friends to widen. She wasn't having much luck.

"Look," the fake let out a breath and the ambient sound started to calm down. "Just step away from the knives and I'll start explaining things."

"How about you explain why you're here and how you know about me," Taylor demanded right back, not liking the others tone.

"I'm here because I live here," the other lied. "And I know about you because I am you."

Taylor almost laughed at the audacity of the other Cape. Did she seriously expect Taylor to fall for that? For such an obvious lie? The girl was obviously out of her mind if she did.

So with a mouth filled with sarcasm Taylor gave the other girl the response she deemed such an answer deserved. "Funny."

"She's telling the truth," a new voice said, entering the scene from behind the fake. The voice belonged to a freckled blonde girl she didn't recognize, one whose smile left her face as soon as she took one look at Taylor. "Crap. She doesn't know who I am."

"Then you really should have stayed with Angelica," the fake said with a biting tone.

"And like I said earlier it doesn't make sense for both me and Brian to watch the dog, especially when I'm useless when I'm just standing uselessly by while he hides her. Besides I thought a friendly face might help, but apparently me and her have never met," the blonde said in a constant string before pausing to wave at Taylor's dad. "Hi Mr. Hebert. Nice to see you again, wish it was under better circumstances though."

"You're a part of this Lisa?" So her dad knew the blonde? That was… probably bad? She didn't know.

"Just a bit, well more than a bit, but I'm here to help." She aimed that last part at the copy, whose expression became a bit harder at her words. "I really am."

"What do you want?" Taylor repeated, taking the stranger's attention away from her father and onto her.

"Just a bit of business, the confusing and interesting kind. You know, normal Cape things," she said with a bit of a smile, "Now, first, a question. What's the date?"

"What?"

"Just answer, trust me when I say it'll move things along." That was the thing though. Taylor didn't trust this blonde, this Lisa. She didn't know what she or the other Taylor wanted. Still though, it was a simple bit of information. Something she doubted could get her in any sort of trouble.

So she answered. "January 23."

"Aaand wrong." The blonde said.

What? How was that wrong? Was this some sort of head game the blonde was trying to play?

Looking over at her dad for any sort of answer or help she found his gaze on her. A gaze that she couldn't identify but it almost looked like he didn't recognize or trust her. "What?" She asked, feeling rather put on the spot.

"Its May 2nd, Taylor."

What? But she was sure it was January. She had just barely started school again but the constant date keeping they forced upon her stuck out in her mind.

"Don't worry the others got it wrong too, though they were right in a way. Just like it was January for you it was so and so date for them, but here it's May," the blonde rambled. "Guess the different worlds aren't time synched."

"What does that even mean?" Taylor demanded, eyes now completely focused on the blonde.

"It means, Taylor, that you're not in Kansas anymore."

-0-0-0-

 _Shygirl_

"Bored, bored, bored, BORED!" a childish voice yelled out into the dark, rocks thrown into a nearby wall with each repetition of the word. The rocks never bounced off or rebound, instead they embedded themselves into the wall or through it in the case of the last rock.

Which was impressive for such a thin girl, considering the warehouse walls were made of concrete.

"I want to go home!" she yelled as she added a kick to the mix to help relieve her disgruntlement. She did not like waking up in a place she did not know, even more so when said place was apparently worlds away from her home.

 _Sorry boss, we're trying but… it's harder than we thought it would be._ General Guy said from across her link, _You're closer than most any other world but it's hard to get to. We're literally being forced to backtrack to a few other worlds just to get to you. It's going to take a while._

The girl let out an annoyed huff but she knew her Guys were trying and would find her soon. So, graciously, she let out a "Fiiine." and plopped down into the make shift bed she and Nippy had made. "But if you're not here when I wake up I'm going exploring!"

General Guy was quiet for a second, one that some would call exasperated, _Just be careful, alright boss? We don't know what kind of world you landed on._

Now he was just being silly. She wasn't completely helpless without her Guys around, she was strong and smart enough to watch out for herself. Besides she still had Nippy with her, not to mention a satchel full of Bob-Bombs and power ups. So of course she was going to be fine.

She wondered what this new world was like though. She hoped it was fun!

-End of Day 1-


	6. Chapter 6

_Interlude 1_

 _-0-0-0-_

 _Danny Hebert_

Danny kneaded his cup, using the heat of the beverage help fight off the morning chill. The coffee warmed his hands and helped stave off the edging drowsiness. He couldn't sleep much the night before, not after all the revelations that came with it.

His daughter being a parahuman seeming to be the most minor of all the tidbits tossed out before him. The fact that she was apparently a villain, a criminal, ranked a bit higher but that still wasn't what had sent his mind into a spiral.

What gave him such a sleepless night were not the crimes his daughter had committed but rather the product of her latest one. A failed theft that had somehow led to different versions of his Taylor running around the city. He could have laughed, just as soon as he thought he was making some sort of progress with his daughter and it turned out she wasn't even His Taylor. He wouldn't have believed such a strange thing if it weren't for the fact there were two Taylors in his kitchen the night before, with two more showing up at his door step not an hour later.

Part of him wondered why he hadn't exploded, why he didn't yell her out of his house, or why he invited these foreign versions of his daughter into his home. Allowed them to sleep in the same room with his 'real' daughter? It was stupid, he knew, to just so blatantly trust these strangers but he couldn't help it.

Maybe it was because even as foreign and alien as they were those girls were still his daughter and his instincts screamed out to see them. He had almost regretted his decision as he was hit by the surreal sensation of their arrival on his doorstep.

Four versions of the girl, only differentiated by minor but noticeable details, had stood before him in awkward silence. A silence only filled in by Taylor's, all the Taylors'(?), friends saying how they were going to leave a guard for the night and check in the morning. As if he could be in danger from his own daughter.

Could he be?

Could these strangers, girls who looked and felt like his daughter, truly be a danger to him? Could he be have been led astray by some misguided feeling of guilt and paternal duty?

God, he felt so stupid for demanding to see them the other night despite protest from his Taylor and Lisa. Maybe they were right to have that Brian boy stay the night. The poor, possibly a villain, boy had just gotten to sleep when Danny came down stairs. And he only did so because Danny promised to shout if there was any trouble.

Then, with his newly found alone time, his mind started to drift all the horrible things and possibilities he could have invited into his home. He started to wonder if maybe he should have called the PRT instead. To have the officials, the people trained and paid to deal with such situations, take over the craziness he had invited into his home?

That last idea turned sour in his mind as soon as it came. If he could believe what Taylor, Starfield, had told him the night before then the PRT and Protectorate would just make things worse. Even more so when he thought about what could happen his Taylor… the local Taylor, if he were to make such a call.

They would arrest her. There wasn't a doubt in his mind about that possibility. They would slap some cuffs on her and throw her under the rug like a bad memory, a memory probably helped and influenced by that of a Ward of theirs. And all it would take was for them to capture one the … alternate versions of his daughter and it was all over.

And there was little to nothing he could do about it.

Like always.

"Morning" a quiet voice said from behind him, causing him to jump and turn to look at the familiar figure entering the kitchen. There, standing in the entry way looking awkward, was Taylor. It took him a moment to tell which one.

The lack of glasses was a big hint, "Good morning… Marceau." The name sounded and felt so foreign on his tongue, even more so when he was referring to his daughter... His daughter's look alike? His alternate daughter? He really didn't know what to think of her as but it still felt strange to call someone who looked so much like a person he loved anything but their name.

From the way she shifted she wasn't comfortable with it either. To fill up the silence he asked if any of the others were awake.

"Skitter's been up for a while now," Danny flinched at his daughter's super villain name, "I think, keeping a watch. I think Starfield was awake when I got up but Techno Queen is still asleep."

Danny felt a little hurt at that but he understood the need to keep watch was more important than a small hello or good morning. He also felt a pang with the idea of Starfield not coming down to say the same thing. He knew wasn't his "real" daughter but they had connected the other night, more so than he and his Taylor had in months.

And wasn't that a depressing thought? He got along better with a version of his daughter who regularly cut herself without so much as a care, a version of his daughter from months in the past. Did that mean he was too late for Taylor... For Skitter?

He did his best to force those thoughts away and offered Marceau some coffee. He even offered to start up the stove and get some eggs going for her but she declined, saying she was fine with some coffee and toast.

The two of them sat in what could only be called an awkward silence, both used to routines involving people so similar to their opposite on the table but they were afraid to go by the reference. They seemed as if they were afraid to see just how different their two worlds were, and how different they were from their parallel selves.

But that was a question that niggled and nagged at Danny. He wanted to know what he was like in those other worlds, in those other versions of his home. He didn't care if he was rich or poor there or if the docks were thriving or not. And even though there was a very large part of him wanted to ask if Annette was still alive that wasn't the first question that came to his mind.

It was question that was constantly creeping towards the tip of his tongue, more so as he glanced at Marceau nibbling on her piece of toast with a far off look on her face. Finally, after a few moments of indecision, he finally worked up the courage to ask. "C-can I ask you a question?" Danny forced out, voice stuttering just a bit at beginning of the question.

With a chew and a final swallow of buttered bread the parallel version of his daughter offered a hesitant answer, "Um, I guess."

He didn't say anything for a few long seconds, continuing to knead his cup of coffee as he searched for a way to voice the question that had been eating at him. He wanted to approach it delicately, to ease into, so that maybe the answer would not hurt him as much as he thought it might.

But in the end he decided to just pull the band aid off instead of drawing out the pain. "In your world… Am I a good Father?"

The girl almost choked at that question and forced out a "What?" to his question. The way she said the word was strange, her posture and the coloring of her face making it look like she had screamed but her volume never went above her earlier words.

Again he paused and kneaded his cup, speaking only once he was sure his words wouldn't come out as a depressed mumble. "I don't know much about capes but I do know a little about how they get their powers. They show up on the worst day of people's lives. Something I've apparently let happen at least four times over. I… I just want to know if there was any version of me that made up for it. If I could make up for it."

Marceau, the foreign Taylor, seemed dumbstruck and uncomfortable with his question. Her mouth opening every once in a while for small unheard sounds to escape and she shifted in her seat as he gave her a desperate stare that just begged for an answer. They begged for an answer that showed that out there somewhere there was a Danny Hebert that hadn't failed as a father after he failed in so many other roles.

As the seconds trickled by Danny's eyes started to fall, leaving their target to stare at the brown liquid in his cup. He could only think that the answer wasn't good. That maybe this Taylor had run away, escaping from his obvious incompetence.

"You, he, my dad's great." The all too familiar voice eventually answered, making Danny's head snap up to look at her. "He did his best for me when I lost my voice and supported me through feelings I didn't even know I had. I still don't think he knows how much I appreciate that."

That, that was good. If she was telling the truth than he did good, that other Danny did good. He proved that maybe there was hope for all the other Dannys out there. That maybe he could fix the mess he was in with his daughter. Maybe even convince her to turn herself in, maybe become a Ward despite everything.

"Thank you." He said knowing that, much like she speculated about her Danny's words to her, she probably didn't know how much her words uplifted his spirit. Enough so that he began to stand, "I think I'm going to start up the stove anyway, make something for all the hungry mouths that are waking up."

Despite her claim of only needing toast she gave him a bit of a hopeful look, "Pancakes?"

"With bacon and eggs, hash too if we have it." He said with a smile as he remembered a younger Taylor giving him a similar look every Saturday asking for the same thing every time.

"Do you want any help?"

For a brief second he thought about waving her off, to do things himself as he was accustomed to, but he decided this could be his first step. Even if he was technically practicing on Marceau to get there, this would be his first step to fixing his and Taylor's relationship.

"Sure." He said with a hand waving to a cabinet, "Want to grab the flour for me?"

"Okay."

Soon enough the kitchen was producing the familiar smells of breakfast that spread throughout the house, reaching the second floor with a noticeable effect. There was thump followed by a few muffled voices and, soon enough, footsteps. And, as expected, three very similar girls walked into the kitchen.

Again he used all the little details he noticed the night prior to tell the difference between the girls. It wasn't perfect but it helped. The one with the longest mane of hair and was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she entered was The Techno Queen; she was the most animated out of all them even in her sleep addled state. Following shortly after her was a Taylor without glasses and eyes just a bit too pale to be normal, which meant she was Starfield.

And bringing up the tail of the group was Skitter, his Taylor, who was sending a halfhearted glare into the living room where Brian was sleeping. She seemed so much more serious than the others, frowning and gazing intently at her counterparts at every chance she had. It wasn't that she didn't have a reason to, but she seemed to be taking things a bit harder than the others.

He had to wonder what that said about his daughter.

"Pancakes!" Techno Queen near shouted in cheer after a deep inhale and a yawn. "And Bacon! The breakfast of Champions! I can't even tell you how hungry I am right now."

"Well, it'll be done in another few minutes…" He paused for a second, "Could one of you set the table?"

There was an awkward moment when all three answered as one and stepped forward to do just that. All three had paused and stared at each other. Eventually The Techno Queen broke the silence with a scratch on the back of her head and an awkward tone she said to Skitter, "I guess it's your house."

Skitter looked at her warily but eventually nodded before making her way to the cabinets, leaving both Techno Queen and Starfield standing awkwardly in the doorway as they were reminded once again that even as familiar as the house was that it wasn't their home. And that hurt Danny a little, to see that expression on his daughter's face, even if it wasn't the real her.

He decided to get them to help out too, delegate things so everyone felt involved. Something he had a bit too much experience in from the Union.

In the end he had sent Techno Queen off to wake up Brian and had Starfield put some of the food on the table.

As they all sat down at the table an uncomfortable air settled down on the group's shoulders. The various teenagers shifting awkwardly, body languages differing like the same phrase said in four different languages, while Brian offered a cough and a thanks for the food. And despite his efforts for conversation, as awkward as said attempts were, Danny found only the clatter of utensils to plates filling the silence of the empty room.

But eventually they all found something to talk about.

This was largely in thanks to Starfield who, with a mutter that he couldn't understand, had taken her unused knife and plunged it into her forearm. At the sight of this various sounds of alarm came from the other occupants of the table and drove people to react. The various Taylors flinched back and Brain had near jumped out of his seat in a rush to stand. Danny himself, who had a vague idea about her powers, had managed to stifle the gasp that had tried to escape from his mouth.

"Why did you do that!?" The Techno Queen demanded while Skitter asked a very similar question at the same time, "What are you doing?"

Starfield seemed to blink in confusion, like she didn't understand the problem. And maybe she didn't. Danny remembered how little she cared about her self-mutilation when she showed him her power, like she barely understood there was a problem with what was wrong with cutting herself open.

He was proved to right a second later when she pulled out the knife and said, "Oh, uh, sorry? My friend was hungry and I thought, since we're all parahumans and all, it would be alright to let her out." Almost to punctuate her statement a tentacle in a color that could almost be called green started to wiggle its way out of the cut, and if he remembered right that was her friend Aria. What he didn't expect was for the tentacle to grow an eye and look around the room.

Even stranger was when it actually started to talk, but not in any language he had ever heard before. It was a language of inhuman gruff sounds that left him dizzy to listen too, it was also a language that Starfield was apparently fluent in as she began to converse to the exposed tentacle in the same tongue.

After a few seconds of that almost nauseating conversation Starfield turned her attention back to the others at the table, "She says hi."

"So it's intelligent?" Techno Queen asked.

Marceau asked a much saner question, "It can talk?"

"Yes SHE can talk and she's plenty smart," Starfield said defending her friend, even as the tentacle ignored the rest of the room for the food on Starfield's plate. The slim limb seemed to stretch as numerous mouths started to grow and form on its green flesh.

Again the collective Taylors only seemed mildly disturbed. Luckily for Danny's sanity it seemed Brian wasn't dealing with the strange sight all that better than he was. Though the teen did recover quicker and get back to his meal soon enough, though he seemed to give hidden but wary glances at Starfield every now and then.

Techno Queen was now dividing her attention between her food and asking questions about Starfield's powers, which led to a loud examination of "I knew it!" when she voiced her opinions about her counterpart's friends being aliens. Starfield seemed to be taking the questions in good spirit, even as Aria's limb made quick work of every morsel on her plate.

Even as disturbing as it was it was nice to have a little conversation at the table, even if no one else was participating in it. Danny, still feeling a bit queasy from the strange words, Brian and Skitter holding a watch on the situation, and Marceau seemed to be content to play with the eggs on her plate as her mind drifted.

Again, it was a nice enough moment in the strange situation they found themselves in.

But it didn't last.

Plates clattered and windows trembled as a series of ear ringing booms resonated through the room. Those local to the world were unfortunately far too used to such sounds spreading from out from the docks but their visitors weren't. They stumbled and jolted to the sound, Marceau seeming almost struck by the sound.

"Do you-" Skitter was cut off by the sound of another bomb going off, "Do you think it's the ABB leftovers again?"

"Maybe," Brian said as he rummaged in his jean pockets for his suddenly ringing phone. After looking at his phone he started to separate from the group, "It's Lisa, she'll probably know what's going on."

Brian had barely stepped away when Marceau replaced him, getting close to her counterpart's face as she demanded answers. "I thought you said you dealt with her?"

"We did!" Skitter said defending herself, "But she made enough bombs for what's left of the ABB to toss around without her."

Danny started to stand, getting his wits about him, and began to open his mouth to stop them from fighting with only the slightest bit of hesitation. He was their father, in a sense, and a father stopped his children from fighting.

But that moment of hesitation had prevented him from asserting himself, from doing his perceived duty, as Brian took that moment to step in and inform them of what he learned.

"Tattletale says it wasn't the ABB. It was another Taylor."

 _DAY 2 START_


	7. Chapter 7

Day 2.1

-0-0-0-

Banshee

Soundproofing had never worked on her powers; her hearing seemed to simply ignore any and all obstructions in its range. It penetrated through the specialized tiles, allowing her to hear everything in the building. Idle gossip between coworkers, the bubbles rising from the water cooler, the skittering of the various bugs throughout the building; she heard every sound with the only limitation being her inability to concentrate on so many things at once.

Sounds including the echoing booms that had woken her up that morning and sent the building into a rushed but organized panic.

She would give the faux PRT Agents one thing, they were well trained. Despite how the building shook and the equipment clattered they followed procedure and kept themselves under control. They reported in to their superiors, some of which she recognized the names of, and went to their designated stations without delay.

The various Capes of the local Protectorate and Wards began to check in, including the familiar sound of Sophia's voice that told her that whoever was behind what was going on had old information... Or they knew Shadow Stalker was gone and wanted to trip her up. Pushing that thought away Taylor began to ignore the console and listen to the rest of the bustle around the building.

She could hear the security personnel did a check on their various prisoners and guests. Besides her she counted four other prisoners, three of them seemed to be slated for transportation. The last one seemed to be in a similar predicament to her own, being held for unknown charges and mumbling while scratching at a piece of paper with a pen.

Again she was both impressed and confused by her captors' dedication to their roles.

Why would they bother keeping it up in what was apparently a time of crisis? They had kept it up the night prior as well, they even had someone play Miss Militia and stay up the entire night. They did so many of the little things she'd come to expect from her superiors, fellow Wards, and the various PRT agents she knew that she hadn't followed through on her escape attempt the night prior.

It would have been easy to do: they weren't treating her with a heavy hand. It could have happened when she was escorted back to her cell by the PRT Agents; a quick sound to disorientate them, an even quicker burst of brute force, followed by hefty use of her Glaive to escape her restraints and open up the reinforced window. But she had stopped herself, not because she was worried she'd fail, but because of the names she had heard.

Chris and Dennis, said in very familiar voices. Voices that sound exactly like the other Wards.

Whoever they were, they knew her teammates names and that was enough to make her decide to stay and gather information. The longer she stayed the more she noticed the little and major things, things people couldn't copy for as long as they have been on such a level.

Which blew many of her theories our of the water, leaving her with a very strong suspicion that she was under some Master's dream effect or an illusion instead of an elaborate play put on by her captures. Then again it could have been both: put her in an illusion and have enough actors around to fill in the blanks. To fill in the blanks her hearing would pick up on.

She easily stopped herself from running into rampant paranoia, ignoring the sense of regret of not acting the night prior, and made herself listen. To hear the reports coming in, teams leaving and arriving. She had to listen to the reports, hear where they could've slipped up, where the illusion could be at its weakest. To see if maybe it was her true allies and friends come to save her.

But again the false personnel played their roles to a perfectly and gave nothing away than what wasn't PRT protocol. Though there was a large mention, more like idle gossip and guessing, about how Bakuda left too many bombs about for people to use.

Strangely they were more focussed on the ABB than the Boxheads.

She listened to the chatter, piecing together and puzzling over the various bits she heard. She had been able to cobble together a general idea of an attack on the Merchants by a bomb user that wasn't Bakuda or using said Tinkers bombs before another conversation caught her attention.

A discussion going on in the Director's office between the local top PRT brass with Armsmaster and Miss Militia, they were talking rather animatedly after a rough description of bomb user came in. A teenage girl with long curly brown hair, a slight build, and approaching 5'10" in height, the girl's costume seemed to be at the back of their mind as they sent over these facts.

"It could just be a coincidence, unrelated to yesterday's incident." The voice of Deputy Director Renick offered out. He seemed rather hopeful about that, but as usual Armsmaster's pragmatism had a way of taking that away from him.

"Unlikely." The head of the East-North-East Protectorate said, "She matches Skitter's build and my voice recognition software puts her at a ninety one percent match for our other 'guest'."

"But it's not a hundred percent."

"It's good enough." Armsmaster said almost dismissively, "Not only do they have a near identical voice timber and range, as well as another half a dozen identifiers, they use a similar vocabulary, phonemes, and speech patterns. This coupled with a similar physical description leaves little room for doubt. Differences can be placed on a change in power set or environment they had since their Triggers."

"So we're sure about Dragon's theory now?" Director Piggot said, sounding irritated more than anything else.

"It fits." Taylor could hear artificial metal and a dozen mechanisms shift, the sound of Armsmaster shrugging. "It was the Professor's machine after all, experimental as it was. So it is possible that the machine activated due to Dauntless's lightning."

"And did something the Professor himself claimed was impossible." The Director nitpicked.

"Not unthinkable or unlikely when it comes to Tinker tech." Armsmaster said almost glibly through his usual controlled voice. "A number of Tinkers find things they didn't realize they could do before; I don't see why Professor Haywire should be any different."

Haywire, that name rang bells for Taylor. Everyone on two planets knew who Professor Haywire was after he had connected two Earths together, despite the impossibility, and changed the lives of billions in the process.

And it was his device that the Undersiders activated in their attempted theft?

Taylor reached back into her memories of the night prior, of the information she gathered from various gossiping words and verbal reports. She remembered talks about six capes appeared out of nowhere after the machine malfunctioned, two of which they had said were taken back to base.

And she was one of the two "guests", or at least the ones with the more preferable treatment.

The dots connected themselves and she could scarcely believe it. If she did...if she followedthe evidence...then that would mean she wasn't on her Earth. It meant that there were other versions of her running around, with at least two of which seeming to be villains.

The evidence fit, the details both small and great sliding together with ease in her mind, but at the same time it just seemed ridiculous. So implausible despite her line of work she couldn't believe it.

But, again, the evidence fit. How similar things were and yet weren't. How she didn't exist, even in Dragon's files. Why no one seemed to know who she was. And it even explained why the voice coming from the other "guest's" voice sounded so familiar as she mumbled for herself to stay calm.

It was because it was her own.

She heard enough every day and through after mission recordings to recognize it.

There was still the chance she was under some very elaborate Master's power but she had doubted the waking dream and illusion theories for various reasons, like the lucid details of reality that couldn't be ignored or the lack of ill placed sounds, like, say, the ocean inside the building, that would come with an illusion.

As her mind processed that thought, accepting the improbable theory as the most likely reality, something was said in the Director's office that grabbed her attention.

"… All the more reason to bring the co-operative ones we have in custody in on this. If nothing else, they can give us a clue on how their counter parts will act." Miss Militia's voice said sounding as if it wasn't the first time she suggested such a thing.

And from what she could remember it wasn't. The second in command of the ENE Protectorate had been the one who very firmly suggested that she get the Independent Over Night room and other leniencies. Within reason, of course.

She originally thought it was part of a 'good cop, bad cop' routine, but now it was obvious that it was just Miss Militia being Miss Militia. As awkward as it was to be around her at times, thanks to her taste in men, Miss Militia had always been kind.

"I'm still not sure if it's a good idea." Director Piggot said bluntly, "If this theory is to be believed than these are alternates to Skitter we are talking about. A villain who has castrated Lung, with bugs. We do not want anybody with a similar mind set running around our base."

Taylor blinked at that, unsure how to take that bit of information. In her own fight with Lung she took the man's arm, by accident, but to do something similar to a more treasured body part with just bugs was an impressive and surprisingly effective use of such a limited power. She would admit that it was a bit disturbing but her first two impressions stuck harder and truer.

"And for at least four of them I would agree." Armsmaster's voice weighed in its opinion. "But the two we currently have in the building have been… mildly co-operative. One of them even claims to be Ward, going so far as to give her Ward ID number and go through proper procedures."

"… And the other one?"

"Still hasn't said much since we've denied her a lawyer."

Miss Militia mumbled "Can you really blame her?" just under her breath. Something the rest of the room obviously still heard as Piggot an answer in a flat tone, "While not the ideal situation these girls fall into a gray zone in the law, Officer Williams was in his full right to use that method to get as much information as he could."

"Her rant was pretty enlightening." The familiar voice of Sargent Massani said scratchily as he apparently mused over her counterpart's rant over not having a lawyer. Taylor half wished she hadn't tuned out the speech over civil liberties when it happened.

"It did tell us she is part of a Rogue group." Armsmaster mused, missing Massani's sarcasm completely. "One focused around art, and knows enough about law to argue their rights of free expression."

"Meaning she isn't a threat. It also means that maybe we can convince her to help us if we explain the situation." Miss Militia said, imploring the Director to listen to her.

"We could learn much from her, Director." Armsmaster added, leaving Piggot in silence for a long moment.

"They will be under guard at all times, either by a Protectorate member or no less than three PRT agents." She said with finality, "Take them to Conference room 3 and fill them in. If they are co-operative see what they know and how we can use them. I want this mattered contained and settled fast, the higher ups are already looking to come down on us and take over the situation. I don't want to give them an excuse to do so."

The room filled with various sounds of affirmation and the meeting continued for a few quick minutes filled with where they needed to send teams. Meanwhile Taylor sat just a bit straighter on her offered bed as she waited to be picked up.

-0-0-0-

The Composer

Her pencil was worn down to a nub and the legal pad she was given was near filled with drawings of various kinds. Most of them were angrily twisted things that reflected her mood perfectly.

Not allowed to have a lawyer?

Not allowed to make a phone call?

What type of shit was that?

She didn't understand why she couldn't even leave the room, or why they were treating her like she was some sort of criminal… well like a criminal bigger than a tagger. As far as they were concerned she should just be some low level Reaper, a group they kept on saying they didn't know about, so she just couldn't understand why they were even keeping her.

She wasn't the Composer to them, hell, she wasn't even a parahumans as far as they knew but still they kept her locked down like she was.

The entire night she had been tempted to just unleash some Noise and rip her way out of her gilded cage, but that would ruin so much of the good will she had been trying to get for her Reapers. As much as she was reluctant to take the role she was the leader of the Reapers and seeing said leader tearing a hole through the PRT base was not the right message to show to either side of the conflict that would cause.

So there she sat, making her frustration known via her art, waiting for the next day to pass. If she remembered her lessons from Grudge right then she could only be held for another day without them placing a charge on her. She could leave without conflict the next day; she just had to be patient.

That didn't mean she had to like it.

As she drew the miasmic lightning that poured out of the bulbous creature on her page the door to her room opened with three PRT troopers standing at its entrance, which was two more than usual. Being the polite person that she was she removed one earbud to listen to them.

"Acoustic," The one out in front with an extra stripe on his sleeve said formally, "Please come with us for a debriefing."

Debriefing? Wasn't that just another word for being interrogated? She had to go through that ill performed display all over again?

With a sigh she started to pack her small amount of belongings and followed them out into the hall. The trip, much like the day prior, had been a maze of bland and boring walls that left her vaguely confused of where she exactly was in the building. It took a while but soon enough they came to a pair of oak doors, doors that contrasted greatly with the dull silvers of the hallway's walls.

Meaning those doors were either there to impress or intimidate with a very strong likelyhood of doing both. At least they had a sense of design when it came to that sort of thing.

The room inside was carpeted with a heavy wooden table taking up most of the space. It looked like something one would expect in a fancy office building, where all the higher up staff would meet. It even had a large screen in lieu of a window.

"Please wait here, someone will be with you shortly." The lead guard said politely, though he didn't leave the room as his two fellows closed the doors behind them.

She did her best to ignore him as she took a seat and set herself up at the table. She barely had the time to finish the framework of her new sketch when the door opened again, revealing another small team of PRT agents escorting a Cape she was unfamiliar with.

The woman, as the curves of her costume hinted at, was tall and wore a suit of silver and blue armor that looked fairly advanced. She also wore a faceless mask that gave her an unsettling feel to her.

It took a special kind of person to wear a faceless mask and still seem heroic and personal. The woman who took a seat across from her wasn't one of those people. The fact that Taylor was fairly sure the woman had been staring at her since the door opened didn't help her unsettling appearance.

"Soooo," Taylor started, feeling uncomfortable with the silence and her scrutiny. "I'm guessing you're not here to interview me." It was an obvious statement, considering how the woman was given the exact same treatment as Taylor as she was directed into the room. Right down to the guard standing behind her.

"No." The woman, who sounded a lot younger than Taylor would have figured, said simply.

"Then what are you here for?" Taylor pressed trying desperately to fill the silence. Not only to get rid of the awkward atmosphere but for the hope that maybe, just maybe, someone would tell her what was going on.

The armored Cape was quiet for a moment before answering, "Same as you I guess. Got caught up in another Parahuman's fight and woke up here."

"Yeah, same." Taylor said with a sigh. What could the PRT want with them? Getting too close to a Cape fight didn't seem like it would be something to keep people detained over. Deciding to test her luck she asked her new companion this out loud.

"Depends on who was involved and what their powers do," Taylor was just starting to notice how eerily familiar the woman's voice sounded, "It could just be precaution to a Master's power."

"Ugh, but it seems so excessive." Taylor groaned mussing her hair a bit as she did so, just then realizing how much she needed to brush it. "They kept us, well at least me, locked up and without a phone call or lawyer. They just kept on questioning me like they didn't believe what I was saying."

"Which is usually how the Master/Stranger protocol works, guilty till proven innocent."

"And that is just wrong."

"It's a necessity, an ugly one but necessary all the same." Taylor could almost swear the woman was raising an eyebrow at her, "Would you rather someone take control of the local PRT or Protectorate?"

"Well, no." Taylor would admit the woman had a point there, "But I don't even really deal with the PRT or the Protectorate, or even the Wards. So I still don't get why they're doing this to me."

The woman shrugged, "It applies to everybody. It's the law." Taylor had nearly shaken her head at how by the book the woman and "with the company" she seemed to be. It was like dealing with a female Armsmaster, stick up the butt yet to be completely confirmed.

Then, before anymore conversation could happen, the doors to the room opened and Miss Militia walked through. "Banshee, Acoustic. Thank you for your patience, I hope I didn't keep you two waiting too long." Miss Militia greeted them as she entered and made her way to the head of the table to take a seat for herself. "First I want to apologize for how in the dark we've kept you but…. the circumstances are strange to say the least."

The armored woman, who was apparently named Banshee, just nodded her head as if she was accepting the apology for what it was. But not Taylor, no, she wanted answers. "While that's nice, I would really like to know why I was locked up without a phone call or allowed to talk to a lawyer."

Even though her mask was only a stylized scarf Miss Militia showed nothing but an honest apology, "Sorry, but again the circumstances we're dealing with are unique. We were operating on a mishmash of Master/Stranger Protocols and Case 53 Greetings to deal with the situation."

"You greet Case 53s like this?" Taylor asked with no small amounts of disgust and disbelief.

"Not at all." Miss Militia said with only a hint of abashment. "Like I said it was a mix of the 53 Greetings and the Master/Stranger protocols and, while I'll admit we leaned more towards the latter with how we treated you, I can honestly say it's not as bad as it could have been."

And as true as that might have been Taylor still didn't like how she was treated. There was no abuse, physical or verbal, but there was a severe lack of freedom. She felt jailed and trapped the entire time. No phone calls, no internet, her only conversations being with the PRT personnel who were either interrogating her or keeping it brief as they did their jobs.

She told Miss Militia as much.

"It doesn't have to make everyone happy if it makes people safer. We needed to err on the side of caution with this. And that's why we're bringing both of you in on this now, because you are safe and you could help us deal with what's going on." Miss Militia said, regarding her and then Banshee.

And as much as Taylor still wanted to protest, to demand to leave, she knew it was best to stay. Especially since it was Miss Militia, the one member people could trust to be straight up about a situation. If she said people were in danger then they were danger.

There was no way she could leave a situation like that when she could help.

"And how can I help?" She tried not to put too much irritation into the question.

"In order for me to explain that, I would also have to explain how we got into this situation." The Protectorate woman explained as she slid open a hidden compartment, hidden within the wood of the table, and pressed a few quick buttons to bring up a series of images onto the television screen.

Taylor instantly recognized a number of the Capes that were in the picture and felt a certain uneasy feeling as her eyes fell on Grue, Aisha's brother. Even if the reasons she was there wasn't related to the Reaper's rescue of Undersiders, and subsequent team up, it still meant some heat was going to come down on Brian. And that may hurt Aisha.

"Around one in the afternoon yesterday an armored truck carrying a device made by the late Professor Haywire, a Tinker who specialized in Portals and Dimensional Breaches, was attacked by the Villain Gang the Undersiders." She pressed another series of buttons that showed pictures depicting said device in its three separate components, "The attempted robbery was interrupted by Velocity and Dauntless, who were on call at the time."

Again, the screen changed to show two separate video feeds, supposedly from cameras somewhere on the two heroes' costumes. Taylor had to admire the bit of flare Miss Militia was trying to add to the presentation, the way she was switching her slides and speaking through the change gave a smooth transition as well as entertaining the listener. This helped her not to interrupt the presentation, to demand that she get to the point and to give her only the necessary details.

Which, when she thought about it, may have come from dealing with the twins and Chicago on a regular basis for information.

The battle between the two groups seemed at first to be a brief affair, which was largely in part due to Velocity until Regent changed the entire flow of the fight by tripping the speedster so much that he couldn't even stand. And this brief pause allowed for an unfamiliar Cape to literally swarm Dauntless with countless bugs. Seeing all those tiny crawling, squirming, and skittering creatures roll and form from Velocity's point of view was disturbing but seeing it from Dauntless' angle was a nightmare waiting to happen.

Even with his force field in the way she could see them breaking through, coming in like a great tide that flowed through its obstacles. It was completely understandable for him to panic in her opinion.

Even as she saw Dauntless make desperate swipes with his lightning empowered spear she could hear Miss Militia continuing to speak. "What happened next no one could have predicted," the words seemed to be near perfectly timed as Dauntless fired a bolt of lightning out from the encompassing mass and struck out. A bolt of intense lightning burning and incinerating its way out of his nerve wrecking prison, striking out to free himself and take the Bug Master out of the fight.

But the bolt missed, striking instead at the asphalt not two feet away from the black clad girl. This was a bit of relief for Taylor, as for a split second she thought the footage was going to show Dauntless accidentally killing the young villain. But what she saw next… she honestly didn't know what to make of.

At first the only effect the miss aimed bolt of electricity seemed to have was to make the bug girl's hair stand on end, but then the two brief cases by her feet started to react. Tiny bolts of power started arching from the metal of the case at an increasing pace until they were streams of energy connecting across the small space of each other, engulfing all that was between them. Including the bug girl.

With a bit of horror she watched as what could only be called black light start to shine around where the bug girl stood, blue lights starting to stir and swirl within the mass of discolored light.

The show of off putting power and light dissipated just as quickly as it had come, clouds of dust and smoke rising from the small storm of power that had just occurred. The clouds did not last as two… things rushed out from the clouds. One creature with wings too black that clawed its way into the sky rather than fly, and the other one looked like a giant metal ball with teeth that dragged a girl in a red hoody away.

A girl in a red hoody that hadn't been there, like the two creatures that had ran away from the scene and the four girls lying on the ground around the bug girl. And one of those girls looked suspiciously like her and another that looked exactly like Banshee.

"Dauntless' bolt had accidentally set off The Professor's device and caused something we believed to be impossible." Miss Militia said as she shifted the screen again, this time showing a diagram. A diagram depicting each one of the girls from the previous screens, it seemed to be mostly of her and Banshee being compared to the bug girl. It had things as simple as their shared style of hair and height to things like voice and behavioral analysis. "It brought alternate versions of the same person, of the villain Skitter, to one world."

Taylor automatically made a sound of disbelief. The very idea of itself seemed ridiculous and out there, even for a world filled with wonder and horrors just as hers. But, then again, there was Earth Aleph. An Earth identical to her own, Earth Bet, up until Scion arrived and changed Bet forever.

But it was impossible to visit a world any closer than that. Everyone knew that, it was a basic thing they were taught in science class a child. It came right after the moon landing in the lesson plans.

Then again, it was a device made by the man who had made the rule, who better to break it?

No, no, it was still too unlikely. Still too out there.

"A, R, H." A voice she was now getting an inkling of why it sounded so familiar.

Looking over at Banshee she let out a sound almost like a hiss while she made a demand, "What?"

"A, R, H." Her supposed other said again, sounding way too calm about the situation for her liking. "If you're really me and not some fake you should know what that means."

If she was really her? What type of question… Oh… Oh!

Annette Rose Hebert.

Rage started to bubble in her gut at that. How dare they!? How dare they look into her past like that! To break the Rules like that! To try and use her mother against her like that!

People died for that. And she was very tempted to add to the count.

"How dare you." She whispered as she was a hair's breath away from calling out her paint and creating some Noise, both literally and power wise.

But then Banshee nodded her head and said, "I'm convinced. What do you need me to do?"

That deflated Taylor a bit; it even made her drop the small amount of paint she was forming at her fingertips. Just like that they would give up a ruse? The advantage they had gotten from her inherited anger problems?

At least Miss Militia was just as confused about the situation as she was. "I was… expecting a harder time of convincing you two."

"Part of my power," She hedged, not giving away anything more than that as she steadily regarded Miss Militia. "Now what do you need?"

Clearing her throat to collect herself, the second in command re-entered her debriefing tone, "Earlier this morning one of the alternate versions of… you decided to make herself known in a very public way." A few clicks on the console again changed the screen, this time to a video clip off of YouVid. Which was something that said a lot about just how public the situation was, especially when one looked at the view count of the video.

The video was low quality and shaky, meaning it was probably from someone's phone, and the run time was apparently short. But it was long enough for Taylor to see what was going on.

Long enough for her to see the girl with the red hoody make a reappearance in front of a warehouse clubbing away at people with a bat. While making sound effects.

To be fair Taylor was fairly sure the people the girl was blatantly attacking were from the Merchants. At least she was pretty sure they were Merchants from the clothes they wore, more notably the bandanas, and the foul language they used in their worn out voices. But still, even if they were that scum, what she was seeing was nothing less than excessive.

"Boink!" The cell managed to pick up as the hooded girl slammed the bat with inhuman force against one man's stomach. "Bonk!" Another sound effect made for a man who tried to blind side her only to be cracked across the cheek. Even if those people were Merchants there was only one word that could describe what Taylor was seeing: excessive.

It had gotten so bad that Taylor had nearly felt a sense of relief for the gangsters when the monstrous form of Mush started to form and advance onto the scene. But then the girl made her most terrifying sound effect yet. At the sight of the other Cape the girl had reached into the satchel hanging from her shoulder and pulled something out. Something that she could only describe, due to the low quality camera, as small and black as it sailed through the air and landed in Mush's mass.

"Boom!" the recorded girl yelled almost childishly as Mush exploded back into heaps and bits of trash. Bits and heaps of trash that rained down into the stubbornly gathered crowd, causing the camera holder to let out a curse as he ran away and ended the recording.

As the video blacked out Miss Militia began to speak again, "What we would like from you is information. Any information you would be willing to give. What you think she would do, where you think she would go, who she would turn to." She regarded both Taylor and Banshee equally, "We're not asking you to give up her, your, name but we need help. And with more than just her. There are four other versions out there, at least one a known villain. We need to contain and handle the situation; the city is delicate enough as it is and this could tip it into a direction no one wants."

Even as Banshee, her supposed alternate continued, Taylor was still trying to come to terms that she wasn't the only Taylor Hebert in the room. It was impossible but the evidence that they had shown… it was compelling.

It was compelling but it also had implications that she didn't like.

"I'm willing to help. But, I have conditions." She interrupted and locked eyes with Miss Militia, who only nodded back at her.

"If they're reasonable I'll make sure that they happen."

She held up three fingers and knocked them down with every demand, "Okay, first I don't want to be treated like a prisoner anymore. I'm going to be a co-operative guest; I want to be treated as such. Second, I want to involved in this. I want to know what's going on and when it happened. Third," When Miss Militia nodded to both requests with little comment she pointed her remaining raised finger firmly at Banshee, "Me and her get to have a long talk once we're done here."

Banshee nodded her head to the last request, "I have no complaints about that."

"Good." Taylor said seriously. She wasn't sure if she completely believed what was going on but she could deal with it. She had to.

It may be her only way home.

-0-0-0-

ShyGirl

"Let go of me you cunt snuffling Bitch!" The well-endowed and strung out figure of Squealer shouted from her position, which was tied up in a wheelbarrow with a girl in a red hoody and hockey mask pushing her down the streets of Brockton Bay. Streets that were a bit more torn up than they had been an hour prior.

"This is for your own good!" The girl pushing her half shouted half scolded back as she tried to find the nearest rehab clinic, doing her best to ignore to incessant insults.

Taylor didn't know how she got there or even where she really was. She did know that wherever she was it was a lot like home, almost exactly like her Brockton Bay before things got bad. From the buildings to the people everything was near the same, only a little more damage in places than she recalled.

She had two theories on what had happened, built upon the stories she had heard from her fellow Challengers from the Brawl. Theory one was that she was getting a "Round 2!" like many of the other Brawlers had gotten, Mario abusing the privilege enough to become an abomination her Shy Guys hatefully call The Puppet.

Theory two was that she was in another world, like the Links of Brawl. There were three Links she had fought against in Brawl, each with their own world and history. One was a child who became the Hero of Time, another who fought in the Land of Twilight as a wolf, and the last with his almost cartoonish features traveled the Great Sea to bring peace to his land. This was the option both she and her Guys were hoping for since it meant that she wasn't going to become anything like Mario, and she would get to meet herself! The idea of that was both exciting and interesting to her, especially when she thought of how well the various Links got along with each other.

But whichever theory ended up being true Taylor was going to take advantage of it, fix things that could have gone better. Squealer being her first, and accidental, step to doing just that.

The series of events that had led to the woman being hogtied in a borrowed wheelbarrow could not all be blamed on Taylor. It was just a series of events that had run out of anybody's control. She wasn't going to say it was the first time that it had happened to her but she was fairly sure it wasn't going to be the last.

When she set out that morning all she had expected to do was scout the area out, to see where she was. She had started building her theories about where she was when had seen the Boat Graveyard and a candy store that used to make really good salt water taffy.

And then she remembered the stain that decided to set up shop in Brockton Bay. Well, it was more like said stain's members found her and tried to mug her. It didn't turn out well for them but it did help her solidify her resolve to help clean up this new Brockton Bay, and maybe collect a bounty or two.

Now if only Squealer would stop swearing at her, "My mother was a very nice lady!" because it was getting pretty hard not to hit her. And it wasn't helping that nearly everyone that she tried asking for directions from ran away from her before she could get a word in edge wise. Luckily there were a few who were nice enough to tell her about the woman's shelter off of Elm that doubled as a rehab center, even if they did pull out their phones a few seconds later.

That was something she could accept. If it meant helping a person that could be a friend out then she could suffer a few pictures of her on the internet, as long as the creepers didn't do weird things to them again.

As she made a turn down Fulton street, and as she began to think she had been given faulty directions, she heard something. At first she just couldn't hear because of Squealers insistent yelling, she was impressed that the woman had kept it up for so long. Then when she heard it she didn't think the sound, the voice was meant or directed at her.

It honestly wasn't until a large dog carrying three passengers landed near her that she even truly acknowledged the yelling.

"Hey! We've been looking for you!" A now familiar looking girl yelled from atop the monstrous mount even as she slid down.

It was only when she took in the blonde hair and the familiar purple jester costume that she relaxed her grip on her acquired bat and loosened her shoulders. It was only Tattletale, which meant the other two on the monster dog were other members of the Undersiders. It was Regent and Bitch, and she briefly wondered where Grue was before pushing the thought aside to focus on the present.

As abrupt as their arrival was it was actually a good thing the Undersiders had showed up, it was going to make Taylor's plans go a lot easier if she had them early on. Round 2 or alternate world it would be nice to have back up when she couldn't call on her Guys.

Tattletale opened her mouth to say something but Taylor figured it would be better if she talked first, "Federal Bails Bonds Agent, Cape name: Shy Girl." She introduced herself shortly, confidently and professionally while displaying her badge just as Mr. Howitzer had taught her to, "I was going to find you guys after I dropped Squealer off, but this works too."

"Crap." Regent said simply, "We just had to run into the crazy bounty hunter version of her."

Taylor's head snap towards him before he even finished his sentence. Taylor didn't like that word, "crazy". She knew what she was but it didn't mean she liked to be called it so crassly.

Something Tattletale must have picked up on as she quickly hissed at Regent to watch himself. Taylor kept her glare on him for a bit longer just so she was sure the message had sunk in. "Anyway, like I was saying, I was going to look for you guys after I dropped Squealer off."

Saying the drugged up Tinker's name seemed to shock her out of whatever stupor she fell into when the dogs landed, "You little fucking shits! You're behind this! Just wait till my man gets here! He's going shove a trashcan so far up your choot's you're going to be coughing out used condoms!"

"Let him try. He's on the list anyway. Now be quiet, you're no fun while you're like this." Taylor sniffed with disdain. To make sure the druggie did as she was told Taylor took the woman's bandana and shoved it in the screaming woman's mouth. "Now, as I was saying. I was going to look for you guys when I was done with her. I'm going to clean up this city and you're going to help."

"… You're taking this a lot better than the others." Tattletale commented as she eyed Taylor warily.

"So I really am on another world? Cool, the Guys should be happy about that." The later part was mumbled but it was still heard by her fellow Capes. Bitch stomped forward, apparently tired of all the useless talking.

"Where's my dog?"

"Huh?"

"Where's my dog." Bitch repeated as she glared at the taller girl, "Tattletale said you're the one that has him."

"I don't ha-" And then, as it clicked in her mind, Taylor clapped her hands together. "Oooooh, I know what you're thinking. Sorry, Nippy's not a dog. Don't worry, you've made this mistake before…. Or the other you did."

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"No? Just saying it's happened before." Taylor said with a shrug, "Nippy's not a dog, he just sounds like one… and acts like one, but he's not a dog."

"Sounds like a dog, acts like a dog, how is it not a dog?" Regent asked airily.

"Cause he's a Chomp." Taylor said glaring at Regent again, "Are you going to listen to my offer or do I get to collect your bounties too?"

"Let's just all calm down." Tattletale made a soothing gesture, "Look, you want to talk right? Good, 'cause the other yous are on their way. I could call them and get them meet us somewhere else, somewhere less public."

Taylor felt herself perk up at the mention of the other hers, enough so that she felt herself bouncing a bit. "Okay, just let me drop her off, like I said, and we can go."

"Um, we might not be able to do that." Tattletale said, still being oddly polite to Taylor. "We kinda had to crash a PRT car to make sure we got here first. Sooo, reinforcements are going to be here soon. A lot of reinforcements."

There was a beat of silence.

"Gah!" Taylor yelled as she threw her arms up in the air and then pointed her bat. "Why do you always have to be so stupid?!"

Regent let out a snort even as Tattletale protested, "Hey, I'm not stupid!"

"Then stop doing stupid things!" Taylor yelled back, "I'm docking other you's pay when I get back!

The sound of sirens started to echo onto the street, getting louder and louder by the second. Something that seemed to set Tattletale on edge, "Look, can we just go? Please? We can worry about a meet up once we don't have people hunting us."

"Alright," Taylor agreed, reaching into the wheelbarrow and easily tossing a protesting Squaler over her shoulder.

"Whoa, whoa, what do you think you're doing?"

Taylor tilted her head to the side, "Going with you?"

"Yeah, you are. Not her." Tattletale said, "We're going to have enough trouble as it is, we really don't need to add a unwilling hostage to the mess. Much less a strung out Tinker."

"I'm taking her with me."

Tattletale let out an irate sigh, "We can't ri-"

"We are not leaving her." Taylor growled out anger beginning to boil in the pit of her belly. She wasn't just going to leave behind a friend to the wolves. Well, a potential friend, anyways.

Before anyone could say a word further to try to convince the girl otherwise three PRT vans rode up to the scene. Watching as they rushed towards them, and mounted foam sprayers swerved towards them, Regent hummed as he summed up their situation. "Man, we really should have brought Grue."


	8. Chapter 8

Day 2.2

-0-0-0-

 _Starfield_

Taylor shrank back into her chair as the yelling began. Girls wearing her face yelling at each other as they tried to take control of the situation.

Actually it was the Techno Queen who tried to take control of thing. She was, unsurprisingly, the loudest and the first to spring up from her seat after Grue delivered his message. She shouted out demands that frankly surprised Taylor.

She wasn't surprised that they were being given, at least not entirely. No, instead it was what the Tinker was demanding the surprised her. The flamboyant girl was demanding information, the wheres and whens of things. After that the Queen started to live up the her name as she began to give out orders.

Orders Skitter took exception to. Her protest born from the simple fact that the Techno Queen did not belong there, that none of the other Taylors did. There were on Skitter's world, intruding on her life.

And Skitter was right, Taylor didn't belong there.

She knew that, more than anything else at that moment Taylor knew that. She could feel it with every wayward gaze the local world's Danny Hebert gave her. It hurt, just a bit, every time he looked at her. How he quickly looked away from her when he realized that she wasn't truly his Taylor, despite how she had vented to him the night before.

At least their talk seemed to make him want to better by his real daughter, his real Taylor. Enough for him stand between the two warring girls and yell over their voices, "Taylor... Both of you! You need to calm down!"

But while his voice carried weight enough to cause a temporary ceasefire in their argument it was not his voice who truly quieted them. Instead it was the quiet, almost unheard, voice of Marceau that seemed to reach them.

"Both of you need to take a step back, we don't have time to with all this arguing." Her voice had a surprising strength to it despite its lack of volume, "We need to handle this, preferably without blowing Skitter's identity while we're at it. And we can't do that while we're arguing over who can say and do what. For now I vote that we leave that to Grue, he's the leader of the Undersiders here isn't he?"

While Marceau gave Techno Queen a hard look, one that received a half protest from its target, Taylor noticed Grue straighten up just a bit from where he stood. A second late he took a step forward, separating Skitter from the Techno Queen all the more with the action, "I have no objections to that, and you did come up with some good points Techno Queen. Ones that'll I see about following through on while the rest of you get into costume. We need to cut this off at its head before the heroes and PRT decide to take off the kid gloves."

"It's THE TECHNO QUEEN." The Tinker muttered before nodding her head, "I'm going to need my ray gun back if I'm going to any help in a fight."

"It's in my jacket by the door," Grue said, pulling out his phone as he waved the girl towards the door. "Tattletale vetted you last night and I figured I'd bring it along just in case."

"No matter the world Grue is always prepared!" Techno Queen Proclaimed as she rushed towards the door to retrieve her weapon.

"The rest of you get ready, we need to act fast if we want to recover from this mess."

-0-0-0-0-0-

As the bathroom door closed behind her Taylor let out a small breath of relief. Being around her other selves was... stifling to the very least. Even when the weren't fighting.

Shrugging away those emotions to the side Taylor pulled out her borrowed knife and began to work on her face. Carefully cutting away at the flesh around her face she began to reveal the swirling mess of stars that laid of the other side. Once the circular flap of skin that was her face was cut away Aria happily wiggled one of her tentacles out to help Taylor cut into the more tricky places.

" _Taylor? Are you well?_ " Melody asked, always the sensitive and attentive one. Taylor half blamed it on her friend's empathetic abilities, the other half she blames on her friend's big heart.

" **I'm fine,** " She half lied. " **Things are just so... Weird right now.** " Taylor rolled her shoulder as one of Melody's wings spring free from the gap in her skin and continued to speak. " **Things are just happening so fast and I feel like I'm barely keeping up. The others all seem to know what they're doing or what they should do and all I did was sit there...** "

" _Is that not to be expected_?" Melody asked as she assisted Taylor with freeing her other wing, _"If what the others have said is to be believed then they have been active in the field, as it were, while you have only a little more than a month's worth of experience_."

" **I guess, but it's still, I don't know, discouraging** " Taylor confessed as she near absently took the knife from Aria and started to create slits along her fingertips, allowing Melody to extend her talons through the openings. " **It makes me feel like I should be doing more, be more.** "

" _If it is of any consolation to you the others are not taking this situation any better than you are. Worse in at least one case_ ," Melody said, making Taylor perk up just a bit in response. " _All of them taste of stress but both the Queen and Marceau are exuding feelings of despair and loss, much more so for the latter. Skitter is a cluster of anger, stress and worry. It certainly does not help matters that she is pouring a great dealing of longing at the one called Grue, who barely returns the attraction_."

Melody's words didn't exactly make her feel any better but at least she now knew that the others were feeling as off put over the situation as she was. And maybe that could be enough.

Enough for her to gather what meager courage she could and go out to meet the villains she was being forced to working with. A disquieting thing even if they were herself.

Grue was the first to notice her descending the stairs, or so she guessed from the strangled sound she heard him he make in the back of his throat. The others gave the leather clad boy a curious glance before following his line of sight to stare directly at her.

It was eerie to hear such similar sounds of surprise from so many different angles.

"How does that even work? How does she even see?" The Techno Queen asked out loud with the sound of disturbed wonder in her voice.

"Th-That's not important right now," Skitter declared, trying to recover her composure as quickly as she could. "We need to figure out how we're going to get to the others. We don't have Bitch's dogs to get to them"

Grue was silent for a moment, adjusting his gloves in what Taylor could only guess was a nervous habit. Then he stared at her, "Starfield, how many people can you carry at one time?"

" **I, uh, don't know.** " Taylor said, feeling put on the spot. " **Maybe one or two?** "

"So we can't have you fly us there then," Grue mumbled before cursing under his breath. "Guess we're going to have to jack a car from the street... probably better to get one from a block down..."

"No, you can't do that. Those people need their cars." Danny said as stood from the table. "If you need a car, take mine."

"We can't do that Mr. Hebert," Grue said with a shake of his head. "We can't risk having this tracked back to Taylor."

"I'll just report it stolen after you leave, I'll call the police a few minutes after you leave and say I woke up with it gone, but I'm not letting you steal a car from this neighborhood."

The two men had a brief standoff before Grue sagged his shoulders and let out a sigh. "Fine but I'm hot wiring the car to make it look like a robbery."

"Fine."

"Good." After that had been settled Grue turned back to Taylor, "Starfield, I want you to fly on ahead with Skitter and help out the others, get them out there or hold things off long enough for us to get there."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Skitter asked, her head taking a nervous turn towards Taylor.

"Best we have right now and we don't have much time to think of a better one. We need to get someone there fast and last time I check you couldn't drive." Taylor could practically feel the unseen message that she nor the other two Taylors could be left alone hidden in his words. "Besides, you pack a bigger punch than I do in a fight."

"I... alright, fine. Where do we go?" Once she got the address from Grue Skitter turned towards Taylor, let out a breath, and started walking towards the backdoor. "C'mon, let's go."

"Good Luck!" Techno Queen yelled out as they left the room with a near mumble of well wishes from the others as they passed.

-0-0-0-0-0-

 _Skitter_

As she was carried across the skies of Brockton Bay Taylor did her best not to feel absolutely terrified. Despite the height Taylor was near absolutely sure she was not going to fell to her death but how she knew that terrified her, and it did so on so many different levels.

Starfield, who was apparently the youngest of the Taylors, had cut into her own abdomen and let loose a number of tentacles to hold Taylor secure as they flew. The fact that the almost green tentacles would occasionally spout an eye or a mouth did not help matters. Neither did that maddening sound Starfield made when she was talking to her alien friends.

To distract herself Taylor reached out to the bugs below and gave each passing of them a simple command, 'Follow'. Every time she felt something enter her control she would repeat that simple order over and over again until, after the first handful of blocks, a sizable swarm began to form behind them.

It was something that people began to take notice of, including the girl holding Taylor up in the air.

" **Whoa, that's a lot of bugs.** "

Taylor gave her a nod and wondered why the other girl's voice had to be so creepy. "I figured that if we're going to get into a fight I should grab as many as I could on our way there."

" **That makes sense...** " She said with a far off tone that sent chills down Taylor's spine. " **But hopefully we won't have to fight when we get there.** "

Taylor nearly snorted.

"That other me, us, whatever, was throwing bombs around. Of course there is going to be a fight!" Taylor said, barely noticing how her voice was growing in volume or her the bugs passing her by became agitated with her. "We've already dealt with one bombing maniac already and my city doesn't need another one. If the Heroes and PRT aren't already there then the villains are sure to show up to deal with her on their own!"

" **Oh...** "

Their flight became temporarily filled in an awkward silence with the exception of Taylor's ragged breaths and the squirming sounds of Starfield's tentacles. It had lasted a bare half minute before they reached their target and the silence was filled with the deafening sounds of barking.

-0-0-0-0-0-

The scene that the two Taylor's came upon wasn't what either of them had expected. They certainly had expected the overturned cars and even the new craters that littered the streets, but they did not expect for the rest of the scene to look like a third grader's art project.

Foam and paint coated the area sporadically in twisting designs, catching everything from PRT troopers to Bitch's dogs in their clutch's. The foam Taylor could have expected but the paint was just out of the ordinary. It was a thick multicolored goop that adhered a number of PRT troopers to the pavement... what was left of the pavement.

But what had to be the strangest thing on the street was the giant ball and chain that was foamed to a wall. It was literally trying to eat its way through foam with its cartoonish maw to free itself and one of Bitch's monstrous dogs from where it was suck to the wall. Taylor did her best not to spend too much time wondering what the creature was or where the rest of Bitch's dogs were, instead her eyes found the source of the mess.

The giddy and giggling source of destruction that had decided to make her life all the harder.

Looking at the source of her woes Taylor found a girl in a red hoodie wearing a hockey mask, and Taylor could already see the similarities between the two of them. From their height to the long and curly brown hair that flew behind her as the red-hooded girl charged towards some of the remaining Troopers, Taylor could see herself in this other girl.

The girl had let out a mighty "RAAWWW!" as she jumped into the air and swung that bat in her hand at a flinching Trooper. To the man's credit he did react, raising his arms up in time to nearly block the incoming blow, but then his arms twitched out of the way of the bat.

That was a good sign, it meant Regent was still somewhere around there and up to his usual trucks, too bad it didn't help the other Taylor too much with the rest of the Troopers. Their grips and aims faltered under Regent's efforts but there were more than enough of them had their weapons aimed in the right direction.

Luckily there were more than enough bugs on the scene for her to fix that. Sure the attacks consisted mostly of bugs up the nose and ears but it was more than enough to distract the Troopers for the other Taylor to do her thing.

" **Is she one of us?** " Starfield asked, her wings spreading wide as she slowed their approach.

"I think so." Taylor said before pointing towards an overturned car. "Land over there, Tattletale's there."

" **Okay**."

Taylor landed first, placed gently on the ground by too long tentacles from meters up in the air, and quickly made her way over to where Tattletale was hunkering down.

"Tattletale!"

"Skitt..." Lisa's voice started to trail off as her eyes fell behind Taylor's shoulder.

"Tattletale? Tattletale? What's wrong?" Glancing behind her Taylor saw Starfiled approaching them in a light jog, her wings held close to her so she was less noticeable. But it was the other girl's star filled opening that used to be her face that got Taylor's attention.

If Starfield's power gave Taylor a headache she couldn't even imagine what it did to someone with Tattletale's abilities. But they didn't have time for her to dazed and out of action, Lisa needed to snap out of what ever funk she was going through.

"Tattletale" Taylor shouted as she shook her friend's shoulder, "Tattletale, snap out of it. We need you to get out of this! Where's Bitch and Regent?"

"Bi-Bitch? She's, she's..." Lisa's voice stuttered and trailed but she eventually managed to force her words free, "She's over there, by the grocery store. She and Angelica got sprayed by the trucks early on in the fight. Brutus and Judas were still in the fight with that giant ball thing for a while but without Bitch there to direct them the PRT guys were able to handle them. After that it was just Shy Girl and Regent holding them off."

"Shy girl?"

"That crazy Taylor over there." Tattletale said as she jerked her thumb in the general direction of the on going fight between the still standing Troopers and the laughing girl. "They've already called in reinforcements, did it when they saw us here with her. We have about three more minutes before more show up. Not sure if it's going to be more PRT or the Protectorate yet."

"Fuck" Taylor groaned as she took in that bit of bad news, luckily she felt the good news rapidly approaching, "Well, I got my own reinforcements coming in." She said trying her best to sound more confident than she actually felt, even if the giant approaching swarm was doing wonders for her attitude.

When the first bits of the swarm made it to the street Taylor went on the attack, the angry buzz of her bugs nearly deafening as she ordered them forward. She spread her first cloud of bugs thin as she used them to take full stock of the street.

She counted the Troopers, took note of their positions as they began to circle 'Shy Girl'. She had also used them to find Regent and... "Who's that with Regent?"

"Squealer. Apparently the other you is friends with her, or at least they are on her world. She won't leave without her."

"I, whatever." Taylor really did not want to think about all the differences, for better or worse, there were between her and her alternate selves' lives. That was a headache for another time. "Let's just get out of here, Grue and the others are on their way now but I'd rather be gone before this gets any worse."

"You won't hear me complaining!" Tattletale snapped out in irritation, "It's your stupid alternate! She wouldn't leave without Squealer and then she dragged us into this stupid fight instead of fucking running away! If you want to leave you have to grab her!"

"Great, fine." Taylor mutter as she tangled her hands in her hair, "Starfield? You're strong right? Can you get Bitch and her dogs out of that gunk?"

" **I can try...** "

"Good, I'm going to try and get that other me, us, whatever." As she said this Taylor began to form arrows of bugs in front of Regent, trying to urge him get up and move. "Tattletale, you'll..."

"I'll stay here."

"You'll stay here."

With that Taylor stood up, barely noticing Starfield racing her way to Bitch's position, and rushed her way over to where Shy Girl was holding off some very persistent PRT may be covered in bugs and low on fire-power, but they were still holding strong and fighting.

Or flailing around rather impressively, it was one of the two. Either way, Shy Girl was going bat-to-dented-foam-thrower with the Troopers, apparently having the time of her life as she pushed them back.

Taylor had no problems interrupting the girl's fun.

A curtain of bugs descended onto the Troopers, causing those brave men and women to let out a startled scream and Shy Girl to rapidly take a handful of steps back.

"Ew, ew, eeewww!"

Ignoring the girls screaming complaints Taylor grabbed her by the arm and tried to pull her away, the key word being tried. The red hooded girl just wouldn't budge, instead she turned her head slightly to look over her shoulder. "Wadya' want?"

"We need to leave, c'mon!" Taylor tried tugging the girl again but her attempt was just as successful as the first time. Instead all her effort did was encourage the other girl to turn fully to face her. The girl looked Taylor over in an almost comical fashion before her whole body seemed to vibrate with excitement.

"You're one of the other me's aren't you? This is so cool!"

"Not the time." Taylor near ground out, "We need to get out of her, now!"

"Fine fine." Shy Girl said with a wave, "Things were starting to get boring here anyway."

"Maybe we could fix that!" A bold and almost boisterous voice yelled from above before an almost obnoxiously large man slammed into the ground in front of them. He was a tall man who had to be bordering seven feet tall and had shoulders large enough that it looked like he could wrestle a bear.

But what had to the strangest thing about the man was the yellow trimmed white body suit he wore.

"I welcome you to the Pelham family patrol!" He said as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation with three bright and glowing figures floating ever closer to their position.


	9. Chapter 9

Planning and financing a wedding is hard! Also, fuck Jury Duty!

Day 2.3

-0-0-0-0-0-

 _Shy Girl_

"Hey! It's the boring half of New Wave!" Taylor said with a wave as she imitated a dear friend. "Hiiiii~"

"The boring half?" An affronted voice said from above.

"Shielder, calm down," Photon Mom said as she descended near her husband's shoulder. "She's just trying to get a rise out of you."

"Yeah, well, it's working."

"Chin up son!" Manpower proclaimed as he rolled his shoulders. "We'll make her take that back in a minute.

Taylor, near completely ignoring their little chat, continued on as if they hadn't said a word. "Since you're the boring half you'll actually listen, right? Unlike these PRT dummies, didn't let me get a word in... dummies. Anyway, I'm a duly deputized bails bonds agent, not completely sure how that works here but eh. And while a fight sound fun there isn't really much of a reason for it."

"Even if that was true, there is still the issue of you attacking Law Enforcement Officers. You'll still need to come in."

"Hey, that's not fair! They attacked me first!" Taylor knew well enough that wasn't a valid excuse when it came to punching cops but she still felt it was something that needed to said.

"Considering that you're surrounded by villains and spent the morning blowing up a chunk of the city, I think they had plenty of reason." Laserdream shouted from above, her hands glowing with power and her arms tense as waited for the fight to start.

"They still started it!" Wait a second... Surrounded by villains? Sure, assuming Rachel was around made sense since her dogs were glued everywhere but the other Undersiders, and Squealer, were out of sight and the only one near her was...

Taylor abruptly turned to face the bug-themed girl next to her and gripped the girl tightly by the shoulders, "Other me! You're a villain!?"

"Kinda? Look, can we talk about this later when a bunch of Capes aren't trying to beat us up?"

Taylor gave the other girl a long and hard stare before releasing her shoulders, "Fine, but we are so talking about this villain thing later."

"Fine, whatever, let's just get out of here!"

"Oh, but you can't leave now!" Manpower said as he rapidly closed the distance between them, "We haven't even gotten started yet!"

The only reason why the girls got away unscathed was at the timely sacrifice of Taylor's bat... She was just starting to like that bat too, it was surprisingly sturdy.

"I'm not going to let you ge-ACK!" Manpower's threat ended with a choke as a thick wave of bugs descended onto him, forcing him to flail about as he tried to swat them away.

"Dad!"

"Shielder, you go help your father! Laserdream, you help me box them in!"

"Got it!/On it mom!"

Taylor, hearing the orders clearly despite the distance, let out the almost meek sounding "Uh oh" before she picked up the other Taylor up princess style and started to run away. PRT agents were one thing but taking on a team of Capes without her Guys was not something she was sure she could handle.

As she ran down the street, hopping out of the way of lasers and sudden hard light obstacles, she started to talk to her alternate. "So, you're doing the bugs?"

"What?" The girl near exclaimed in distracted voice. "I, yeah. Can we talk about this later? Please?"

"Fine, fine." Feeling a bit disappointed Taylor pushed on and continued her routine of running and dodging. It was a tricky thing, trying to not get boxed in or guided into a corner, but Taylor managed it. It actually reminded her of a few puzzle games she played with some of the other Brawlers.

Still annoying though.

"Shit," the Bug Taylor hissed from her arms, "Manpower's on the move again."

Well, that sounded bad.

And sure enough a voice yelled from above them, boldly proclaiming, "Didn't I say you weren't getting away!" as it's owner began to rapidly descend on them. Not some Taylor hadn't had to deal with before a common enough tactic for a number of her sparring partners in fact, but wasn't quite sure the Manpower from her world had ever been quiet so enthusiastic.

Something to check on when she got back home, she supposed.

But as she jumped back to dodge the aerial attack Taylor found her back slamming into something warm. Turning her head back she saw a wall of purple energy blocking her escape. She tried to use the new hard light wall as a springboard but mid-leap Manpower was suddenly in front of her and punched her hard enough enough she could swear she heard something crunch.

She really hoped it wasn't her nose again.

Before she could respond, curse, or even think of jumping away, walls of blue and red joined the purple effectively trapping her in a multicolored pyramid.

Definitely not good. She really should have given the boring half of New Wave more credit.

"Heh, not as quick footed as you thought you were huh?" Manpower asked with a grin, tapping at the makeshift prison as he did.

"Manpower, now's not the time for gloating." Lady Photon chided with the sound of fond exasperation leaking into her voice, "Go try and corral the other villains, but stay in our line of sight so we can offer some long range support. I'll send Laserdream after you once Shielder and I have contained Skitter and the Brute. Also try to see if any of the PRT agents have any foam grenades they didn't waste on the street."

"On it, honey!" He was bounding his way down the street before Taylor could even shake all the stars out from her eyes.

"Are you okay?" The Bug Taylor asked as she crouched down next to her. She must have fallen out of her arms when Manpower punched her.

"I'mfine." Taylor said with a bit of a huff, happy to hear that her voice didn't have that muffled quality that came with a broken nose. Looking up she could she the red wall of light steady receding as the blue and purple ones began to take its place. It'd probably be a good idea to attack before they were done with that.

With a flip from the ground Taylor launched herself into the air and towards the ever shrinking wall of red, "Aaaaaah!". Her fist struck with a solid thunk, completely disputing the wall of energy that was once there.

Unfortunately the blue wall had near instantly taken the red's place, leaving Taylor to fall flat on her back instead of toward freedom. "Not going to happen," she heard from above, soon followed by another gloat of "And that's not going to work either Skitter!"

Looking towards the glowing blue boy she could see that he, and his mother, had covered themselves in force fields stopping the large swarm of bugs from attacking them. Annoying.

If she had her Guys with here they wouldn't be acting so damn smug... Speaking of which, how much longer were they going to be.

*Another day at the least, boss. Just try to hang in there a bit longer.*

Taylor let out a tsk and a grunt as she pulled herself up from the ground. It didn't seem like she was going to get any help that way anytime soon, so it was up to her to get herself out of the mess.

"Bug me! Can you do anything else with your bugs?"

"Not if I can't get to them, and Laserdream is making sure I can't get her or her dad."

"Great..." Taylor started to go over her options in her head. She knew Shielder's and Photon Mom's shields were better than Laserdream's, so they weren't just going to break from one of her punches. It would take a while lot of punches at the very least but she just didn't have the time for that. She still had some Bob-ombs but she didn't think that Bug Taylor was as durable as she was.

"How good are you with explosions?"

The Bug Taylor just stared at her for a moment, one that felt very long and quiet, before she answered in a hesitant voice. "Not very good..."

"Well, can't do that then..." But as she began to think about her other options Taylor hear a terrified scream. Looking up she could see Laserdream rapidly flying away from a winged cape.

"The fuck is it's face!" Laserdream yelled even as a wave of slithering tentacles sprung from the winged cape and wrapped themselves around the heroine's ankle. With a mighty tug the other cape tossed the eldest Pelham child at her sibling, the boy's eyes briefly widened before dropping his shield so he didn't hurt his sister as she slammed into him.

An impact hard enough to force the boy to drop his field and allowed both Taylors to jump towards freedom. As Lady Photon went to check on her children the winged cape landed near them and Taylor's mind briefly shut down as she stared into the void of stars staring back at her.

"So, pretty..."

" **Are you guys okay?** "

Taylor couldn't find it in herself to answer but Bug Taylor obviously wasn't as enraptured as she was. "Yeah, thanks Starfield. How are Bitch and the dogs?"

" **Mostly free, Bitch didn't want my help anymore after I got her out. Said something about me scaring her dogs.** "

"Yeah, I can see that," Bug Taylor mumbled, "Okay, once we get Bitch's dogs out we leave. I don't think my bugs are going to distract New Wave for long."

" **Okay... Is she alright?** "

Bug Taylor and the star faced Cape both turned their attentions towards her and the only response she could muster was a, "Pretty."

" **Um, thanks?** "

"Now is not the time!" Bug Taylor near yelled as she shook Taylor out of her stupor. "We need to get going, now!"

"Huh, what? I'm good!" Taylor eventually said after a few blinks.

"Then let's go! Starfield, do you think you can hold them off? Make them back off for a bit for us to escape?"

" **I... Maybe? I mean, they're heroes. I don't want to hurt them...** "

"Then don't, unless you have to. Try to remember they're trying to capture us, hurt us." The other Taylor explained, "I know it doesn't seem right, but-"

"Nippy!" Taylor squealed, interrupting whatever Bug Taylor was going to say, as she saw her lovable Chomping bouncing towards her.

" **That thing is yours?** "

"Yep! Nippy got stuck in the foam ealy in the fight but now it can help us get away!"

"How?"

"Easy, Nippy?" The cartoonishly toothed steel ball perked up at its name, "Sic em!"

The Chomp let out an excited bark as it rushed towards the swarm of bugs holding back the members of New Wave, "There, that should keep them distracted longer than your bugs."

"And your... Chomp?"

"Nippy can find me later, probably hide in the sewers until I call."

"I... Okay, whatever. Let's just get the others and get out of here. I'll call the others, tell them to meet us at the base."

They could hear Manpower yelling over the sound of barking and buzzing, promising that they wouldn't escape him, but a quick glance backwards showed that the large ball of steel was keeping him busy as his family was rapidly killing swaths of bugs around them.

Still, it looked like they had bought themselves enough time... hopefully. And if they didn't, well, she had a few Bob-ombs ready to help fix the situation.

-0-0-0-0-0-

In the end they had gotten away easily enough, though two Bob-ombs had to be used to accomplish that task. She felt a little bad for using them but hey, needs were needs and they needed to get away.

And boy did it feel weird to be on the other side of that.

With Squealer still struggling on her shoulder Taylor took a look at the building the Undersiders and the other Taylors had brought her too and, frankly, it was a dump. Or at least the outside and first floor was, the second was actually pretty nice. Like one of those apartments in magazines or TV shows.

"So, where can I put her?" Taylor asked

"Just, toss her in the bathroom for now. We'll figure something else out later," Tattletale said with a wave, massaging her forehead as she moved towards the kitchen.

"I don't see why you even brought her," Bitch growled, coming in with her dogs trailing just behind her.

"She's not that bad once you get to know her," Squealer was actually a pretty funny person, once you got passed all of her cursing.

"I was talking about you."

"Bitch, we've been over this. It's to help Taylor, okay?"

"Whatever," Was all the girl said as she all but stomped down the hall.

Tattletale let out a sigh. "Just follow her down the hall, the bathroom's the second door on the right."

"Thanks." Following Tattletale's directions Taylor soon deposited the cussing Tinker into the tub. "I'll be back soon with some food, k?"

Whatever the woman yelled at her through the gag, it sounded very much like 'vacuum'.

"Alright, see you in a bit!"

The scene she saw when she reentered the living area was vaguely familiar. What with Regent stationed in front of the TV absentmindedly playing his games while Tattletale was sprawled out on the couch with a water bottle pressed to her forehead. What was unfamiliar, and a bit strange to see, were the two other Taylors in the room.

The Bug Taylor sitting next to her Tattletale, unmasked and holding her face in her hands. Not too far away in the love seat, literally twiddling her thumbs, was the star faced Taylor who now had a regular Taylor face somehow.

It was a little weird. She wondered how the Links handled it.

"So, when are the other Taylors going to get here?"

"In a bit. Grue said he's taking the long way to stay out of the cops' way." Tattletale near mumbled as she gestured towards the seat next to the Star Taylor, "Take a seat, make yourself comfortable, get to know the other Taylors. Pretty sure there's a lot to go over."

Bug Taylor, Skitter, slumped back into the chair and let out a hefty sight. "She's right, sit down. I'll try to explain what's going on."

"*snort* Like anyone has a clue on what's going on dork."

"Shut up, Regent," Skitter grit out, obviously stressed about something. Though Taylor couldn't say she blamed her. "Just sit, please?"

"Alright," Taylor said easily enough, it wasn't like she didn't want to know what was going on herself. The Star Taylor, Starfield, gave her a brief smile as sat down. One she tried to return before remembering she had her mask on.

Since everyone in the room knew who was and were unmasked themselves she didn't see any reason why she couldn't remove hers. But as she reached up to remove the mask she noticed something. "Ah, damnit!"

Every head, including Regent's, turned to look at her as she ran her hand up and down her hockey mask. "Fucking thing broken again! Now I get another one." Without any further fanfare she simply flipped down her hood and removed her, tossing it to her feet in frustration. "I'll have to check the sporting good store around her for another one... Ooh! Maybe I could get one with a cage this time!"

She looked back at the others. "What do you guys think?" She asked eagerly excited for opinions until she noticed how the others were staring at her. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

Tattletale broke out laughing as she clutched her head and stomach while Regent actually paused his game.

"Ooookay, Tattletale's being stupid again. Seriously, come on, is there something wrong with my face?"

"Something wrong with her face she ask..." Tattletale said between laughs.

"What happened to you? How did you get all of... that?" Skitter asked, eyes wide and hand waving expressively over her face.

Taylor frowned for a bit, wondering what they were talking before she placed her hand onto her face and then her lips suddenly made an 'o' of realization. "Oh! The scars? I got them when I was trying to get Lung's bounty! Pretty much destroyed my right eye and a good chunk of the nerves and muscles in my face. I tell you, PanPan had a screaming fit when she saw my face, wanted to restore it right away but I said 'Nope, scars are awesome and so are bragging rights, just make sure everything's working and I'll be great!'. Had to pay through the nose for that too."

"Payment? Your Panacea charges people?" Tattletale asked, sounding curious.

"Yup! Twenty-thousand dollars, lunch and I had to come along when Vicky did a shopping trip, and I had to pay for it all! That time it cost me like Sixty Thousand dollars!" A sound almost like a groan and strangled gasp camp from someone's throat. And then the bounty hunter pulled out a small photo-wallet. "Hold on, I had the guys take a picture... Ah! Here we are!"

She proudly displayed a photo of a smiling Shy Girl, mask removed and laughing despite the charred mess that was the right of her face, "It only hurt when I laughed and I was doing a lot of laughing back then."


	10. Chapter 10

Day 2.4

-0-0-0-0-0-

 _Composer_

The conference room had grown silence since Miss Militia closed the door, leaving the two version of Taylor Hebert alone as the began to stare each other down. Well, as close to a stare down as someone could have with an expressionless mask. Something that irritates Taylor enough to have her grit her teeth and go offbeat with her pencil tapping.

How was she supposed to believe that the girl across from her was actually another Taylor Hebert? That she was truly in another reality. Just because the other girl had, very rudely, name dropped her mother's initials? And how easily she seemed to go with the PRT's explanation was just too Un-Taylor like for her to possibly accept. Or, maybe, it was just un-Composer like…

Everything about them just seemed too different for Taylor to even begin to believe that they could possibly be the same person. Even the way she sat there somehow irked her. Outside of Shadow Stalker that shouldn't have even been possible!

When her frustration finally boiled over she slammed her pencil to the table and demanded answers, "How did you know her name." It was not a question; it didn't even sound remotely like a question. It was an order given through clenched teeth.

One that Banshee, the supposed other Taylor, easily shrugged off and answered, "Because she was my mother too."

Rage swept through her, "Don't give me that! You expect me to believe this, this, charade!? That's we're the same person? That this is an alternate reality with its own version of me? I don't know about you but I paid attention in school, it's not possible, everyone knows it's not possible!"

Letting out a sigh the armored girl leaned back into her chair and motioned towards Taylor, "Fine, if you don't believe me then ask me something, anything. If I can't answer something then you'll know I'm a fake, right?"

Driving her pencil eraser into the table Taylor glared at the calm girl, "Fine! First question…."

Even as the questions spilled from her mouth the supposed other answered each one, nearly as soon as the third word was out her mouth. It was more than a little disconcerting, it almost made her believe she was talked to a disguised Tattletale.

Not yet convinced Taylor stated to irritably tap away with her pencil once again until a final request came to her mind. One the could dissuade most of her doubts, or at least her more likely to believe what was being presented to her.

Dramatically, mostly to vent off some of her emotions, she stood up from her chair and pointed her pencil in the girl's face. "If you're really me then show me your face!"

She knew it was a silly demand, childish even, especially considering all the Changers or Strangers in the world who could make themselves look like her. Or the Thinker who could figure out all those little details about her to answer the question…. But…. but… Something in her gut was telling that maybe it was all true. That the evidence in front of her maybe right, maybe.

With her declaration made she stood there, still pointing dramatically, at her silent companion. A companion who went still stiff at her demand, almost appearing to be shifting nervously in her seat.

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea…."

Tsking Taylor leaned forward with a scowl clear on her face, "And why not?"

Her following response did make some sense, "Besides that cameras in the room? I'm a Changer…. I don't exactly have any clothes to wear if I turn back."

"You don't have clothes?" Taylor's voice trailed as she let those words sink in, her face redding rapidly as they finally did. Even if it was a body she was familiar with, supposedly, she wasn't all that comfortable with the idea of seeing another girl naked in front of her.

On the other side of the table, Banshee just sighed, "I need to eat anyway. I'm going to ask the PRT agents for some clothes and a mask. Maybe see about some food too." Rising from her seat Banshee knocked on the door and gained the PRT officer's attention. With a few quick words, the officer nodded his head and left the room. "They said they'd be back in a few minutes."

Upon hearing those words Taylor slumped into her chair with an "Ah" not sure how to feel about the other girl's sudden cooperation. Or how easily she seemed to be going with the idea.

Composing herself, no pun intended, Taylor waited patiently with Banshee in another one-sided staring contest. It only lasted for a few moments but the growing discomfort and the remains of her frazzled emotions had her shifting awkwardly in her chair. It was almost a blessing when the PRT agents returned with a bundle of clothes and a few wrapped sandwiches, dropping them on the table quickly and leaving just as soon.

Once the men were gone Banshee picked up the bundle of clothes and hesitantly motioned for Taylor to come closer. "Can you, can you cover me?"

Modesty was apparently a thing for the other girl, not that Taylor could exactly blame her for that. So she stood up and did her best to cover the other girl's form from the cameras' sights, he back turned and her arms held wide. As Banshee began her change curiosity started to gnaw away at Taylor, especially when the sounds of the transformation reached her ears. She held up for all of thirty seconds before her curiosity broke her and she peeked over her shoulder, she really wished she hadn't.

Puke started to rise up her throat as she saw Banshee's features twist away, white metal and gray leather like material sinking away for pale pink flesh in a gruesome display that wouldn't be out of place in one of Stephen King's nightmares. The worst part was that she could not turn away from it, her mind just soaking in every detail as the minutes dragged on.

One thing Taylor was sure was that her next sketch was going to one of her most nightmarish yet.

She knew it was probably rude, definitely rude, to stare but she couldn't help it. She was too enraptured by the horrific process of watching Banshee's futuristic armor twist and melt away to reveal all too familiar features. A wide mouth, waves of curly brown hair, a nose that looked so much like her mother's.

Everything just formed together to build an all too familiar, all too naked, girl kneeling in front of her. It was like looking into a mirror, if the mirror made you look a whole lot more fit than you actually were. The sight was a bit disorienting.

Rolling her shoulders from the apparent discomfort Taylor Hebert asked, "Do you believe me now?"

-0-0-0-0-0-

 _Marceau_

It was still odd going to the Undersider lair and feeling like an invader. It had been her second home in her reality, her safe place when her family home felt too stifling and where she could go to be among friends. It had been a warm inviting place, now it left her feeling dirty.

"Marceau? Are you okay?" The Techno Queen asked as she walked up behind her. They had to dump the truck a few blocks away and stash the not so subtle parts of their costumes into discarded shopping bags found in the old truck. It made them look less obvious but it also made the two girls look like twins. It was surreal to be talking to someone who was basically a living reflection of her, she supposed it must have been how Amy felt with Amelia.

She wondered if the other Taylors felt the same.

"Only a little," She eventually responded, being truthful about how she felt. "I'm still feeling outside my depth right now."

"Reeeally know how you feel, but at least things are interesting, right?" She gave Taylor a smile topped with hopeful, almost puppy like, eyes.

Recovering a bit Taylor smiled back, "I guess so." She still let out a small sigh as the two of them followed Grue up the stairs. The Techno Queen was right that despite all the strangeness of the last two days things were still interesting, if not a little disturbing.

"You ready to meet another us?"

It was almost astonishing to see how hyper the other version of herself was, making her wonder just how different their lives really were. "Oh, I'm more than ready. What do you think they're like? I hope she's another Tinker."

Tinkers, while bullshit, were always useful. And having another one in their growing ranks would be a godsend in getting home. Then again the other Taylor had spent a good part of the morning blowing up a street, which wasn't the greatest of signs.

Taylor's ears perked as they reached the top of the steps, hearing voices raised in what sounded like a very intense argument. She wasn't only who was overhearing the argument either, nor was she was she the only one to react. In the corner of her eye, she could see the Techno Queen digging through her bag for her ray gun while in front of her Grue was tensing as if ready for a fight.

Opening the door, with barely any signs of hesitation or caution Grue stepped into the Undersider's flat and the argument could finally be clearly heard. Familiar and identical voices were trying to talk over each other as they bickered back and forth.

"-out what you're suggesting! You want us to break into one of the most secure places in the state and for what? Some girl who doesn't even know you? Who might not even be anything like the one you know?"

Keeping close together the three of them enter the den and were greeted by the sight of Skitter yelling at a Taylor in a red hoody, who seemed just as ready to scream her lungs out. "She's still my friend! And she could be your friend too! You just need to get to know her!"

Sneaking a glance at the rest of the room Taylor saw Starfield near shrinking into her seat while Regent looked on with an amused smirk across his face. Tattletale meanwhile was rubbing her temple with one hand and pressing a water bottle to her forehead with the other. Bitch was nowhere to be seen, probably out walking her dogs to get away from all the noise.

Once could not blame her. Taylor herself was half tempted to just turn around and walk away from what seemed to be a headache waiting to happen. Not that she had much of a choice in the matter as Regent wave at them and, very loudly, asked them to bring him a bowl of popcorn.

Looking at the new Taylor for the first time had sent her reeling. She looked like the villain from that Earth Aleph comic, Batman maybe, who had half his face burned off. It was more than a little disturbing to see on a copy of one's own face. It was enough to make Taylor flinch back but Techno Queen was not as reserved in her reaction.

Open mouthed she stuttered and pointed, "W, wh, what the hell happened to you face!?"

"Not this again!" The Taylor complained as she slumped back in an over exaggerated manner, "Accident happened, scars are cool, I'm better now… Hi, I'm Taylor! But you knew that already, obviously. You can call me Shy Girl though!"

"Good to meet you, I'm Marceau," Taylor said near automatically when confronted by the suddenly friendly girl. She seemed almost bipolar from the way her mood swung from anger to exasperation to excited in the span of a few seconds. She also didn't seem to have an idea of personal space as she swooped both Taylor and the Techno Queen into a big old hug.

The tight embrace did not stop the Techno Queen from giving her usual introduction, "And, umph, I am the Diabolical TECHNO QUEEN! It is good to meet you Shy Girl! … Could you put us down now?"

"Oh! Sure!"

Gently placed back on the ground the two Taylors took in a few lungfuls of air as they recovered from one of the tightest bear hugs of their lives. While they were recovering Grue went over to Skitter, to either check on her or to get an update on things.

"Everything alright?" He asked, his free hand clasping her shoulder.

"Things are a headache." The bug themed girl replied, rubbing her temples in a similar fashion to Tattletale. A moment later she glared at Shy Girl and nearly yelled out her next line, "She wants us to break Canary out jail."

Taylor blinked at that, vaguely recalling the name from her own world. She didn't really follow the case but she knew some of the minor details of the pop star turned convict. Like that she had a Master power and that she had someone mutilate themselves. She also knew people who claimed that it had been an accident.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help a friend out!" Shy Girl should from across the room, and close enough to make Taylor thankful for her silence field.

"It's helping out a stranger your don't even know! You've already kidnapped Squealer and tossed her in our bathroom because she's apparently your 'friend' back in your world. But this is my world, my home, I have to live here after all this is done!"

Squealer was in the bathroom?

Off to the side Grue vocalized the same thing, "Why is a Merchant in our bathroom?" His voice sounding anything but friendly with its deep and flat tone.

"Uh, because she's my friend? Duh. Just because they aren't the exact same people doesn't mean I don't want to help them. They deserve just as much help as I gave my versions. I mean, I'm sure the other Taylors have people they want to help too."

Taylor did her best not to think about Amy at the girl's words but her mind just drifted there, much like it had been over the last few days.

Brian didn't seem to care, "It doesn't matter. We have enough heat on us as it is and this Squealer thing is just going to have the Merchants after us too. Worse, you brought her here so we can't even toss her out without someone coming after us.

Upturning her nose Shy Girl 'hmph'ed at the Undersider, "I'm not sorry." That response didn't go over well with the teen or Skitter.

Taylor decided to be a middle man and calmed down the situation, again.

"Let's all calm down for a bit okay?" Her quiet voice interjected, doing its best to cut through the coming verbal storm. "While it's a nice idea to help people here Shy Girl we really should be trying to get us all home first, don't you think?"

"It's not going to be THAT hard." Shy Girl said with a shrug and a wave. "My Guys are already on their way from my world and I'm sure they can help you guys get home too."

Fleeting and bare traces of hope mixed in Taylor's chest, as well as a good amount disbelief, as Shy Girl's words rung in her ears. She had people from her world already working to get her back? And they could bring them all back to their own worlds too? It was almost too good to be true.

Everyone seemed to feel the same way too or at least felt the same amount of disbelief she had. As evident by Starfield's hesitant question of, "You can get us home?"

"I don't see why not… give me a sec." Shy Girl closed her eyes, her face inquisitive for a moment before clearing away for a bright smile. "They said it would take a bit but it shouldn't be a problem. There are apparently 'streams' or something leading to this world, so if they follow them backwards they can bring you back!"

Starfield's smile was almost as wide as Shy Girl's but not all were convinced.

Crossing her arms Skitter glared suspiciously at the other girl, "And how did you know that?"

"Obviously, it was my power." Shy Girl said in a tone that screamed 'duh', "You have your bugs and I have my Guys. It's as simple as that. Now can we get back to helping Paige, pretty please?"

Moaning into her hands Tattletale spoke up for the first time, "Just do it. She's going to do it either way, with or without our help and shit is still going to come down on us because, well, she's Skitter. Better we do it now so we can at least control the damage instead of dealing with the mess when her 'Guys' get here. Besides it could be a good boost to our rep." The last part was thrown towards Grue like some sort of consolation prize. Once that that he was obviously considering.

"Paige is my friend and minion in my reality too so I vote we help her." Techno Queen said, sounding a bit more somber than usual. Shy Girl gave her a wide and bright smile that stretched the burned parts of her face too much for comfort.

Looking at the group and the indecision that was brewing in the room Taylor decided to say that had been constantly on her mind. "Amy," She said, gaining the rooms attention. "If we're going to be helping this world's versions of people we need to help Amy Dallon."

"I, no, you're kidding me!" Tattletale exclaimed, her voice nearly squealing with scandalized delight before she had to slump back into her seat from sudden head pain. "Ouch, but worth it. Oh, so worth it… I vote we at least help Amy."

Cheeks flushed Taylor tried not to meet Tattletale's, she remembered all the teasing her version of Lisa put her through after finding out about Taylor's oblivious was at least reprieved from some attention when both Shy Girl and Techno Queen put their votes their votes in to help "Pan-Pan/Dark Lady Plagg". And even Skitter seemed to be, reluctantly, behind the idea of helping the healer.

Alec raised his hand as well, "I have no idea what's going on but this, THIS, is pretty damn entertaining. I vote that you guys go for it."

Taylor couldn't help but notice how Alec didn't include himself in his vote. It became very apparent that all Alecs were jerks no matter the reality.

Eventually, Grue, the last man standing against the idea, sighed and said, "Fine, but we're playing this smart. Meaning we need Tattletale rested to gather info and call the boss, see if we can't get anything out of him for this. He owes us for all the heat he's brought on us for trying to steal that Tinker tech for him… Is there anyone else you guys want to add to your little list? I'd prefer to hear it now instead of later."

Delayed by a heavy dose of hesitation, most probably caused by irritation with her own world's Grue, Taylor eventually added a name. "Purity." Tattletale barely had time to contain her giggles before that headache kicked in again.


	11. Chapter 11

Day 2.5

-0-0-0-0-0-

 _THE TECHNO QUEEN!_

Taylor would admit that she had gotten swept away in the emotion of it all. The idea of going out into the world and helping the alternate versions of at least two of her friends was more than appealing to her. Strangely enough, it was Shy Girl who brought the mood back down, saying they had to wait before they tried anything.

Her reasoning had been sound enough, saying that she wanted to wait until her 'Guys' arrived before she got into another Cape fight. Taylor could completely understand that, she felt uncomfortable enough going into battle without her Thunder-nator much less her teleporter. Still, there were other's they could help without getting into a fight.

Everyone else seemed to have a list of people that want to help, Marceau's being the strangest to her as it included an apparently former Nazi, but Taylor was more than a bit fearful of giving out her own list. The very simple reason for this was because Skitter's Undersiders didn't work for her. As Grue said they still worked for their original boss.

They still worked for Coil.

Everything she knew about the man said that was listening to them, that had every room and appliance bugged. At the same time, everything she knew about the man screamed at her to act against him, to storm his base again and get his friend out from his grasp.

Could she do? Probably… if she could get the Undersiders to agree or if Shy Girl's 'Guys' were as good as she said they were. She would definitely have a chance of saving the little girl if she the resources to actual build something useful. Which brought up the idea of helping her other friend first…

Her musing was interrupted by the reprieve calling of her name, a name that they still couldn't get right. "Hm?" She asked absently as she looked up from the series of kitchen appliances and game systems she had dismantled in front of her.

Not too far away stood a rather sour-faced Skitter, her eyes, and nose scrunched as they looked over her work in progress. The irritation was plain on the other girl's face but Taylor couldn't be sure if it was because of all the dismantled property or if it was just because of her presence. It was probably a combination of the two and Taylor really couldn't blame her.

On the other hand, it was more than a little bit annoying. She knew the distrust was warranted but seriously if you couldn't trust yourself who could you trust?

Quizzingly the other Taylor looked at her, "What are you making?"

"Uh," Taylor said with her mind still rebooting from being taken out of her Tinkering, "Oh, it's hopefully going to an electrical current interruption field generator, think an EMP that doesn't wreck the machines. I'm thinking about calling it the Blend of Disruption."

Eyes a little way Skitter stared down at the mess of wires and components sticking out of the case that was once a blender, "Okay, I guess that could be useful… Look, can I ask you something?"

"Er, I guess?"

Nerves apparent Skitter tugged at her hair, something Taylor marveled at as the trait seemed multiversal, and worked her jaw until the words she wanted finally came out, "How are you so… peppy?"

Keeping her cool in the face of a rather blunt, and unexpected, question was harder than she would have thought. She was actually impressed with herself when she managed to place her tools to the side without setting anything off. "Peppy?"

"Right, maybe that not the right word but you just seem so… excited all the time. Like none of this is bugging you and I just don't get it! I mean, you're supposed to me and… How are you not freaking out?"

"Ah," Taylor said after a moment when the realization finally hit her. "Well, I am freaking out. I'm all kind of freaking out right now but, hey, things are pretty interesting so I'm trying to focus on the positives. And I'm not as 'peppy' as you think I am."

"C'mon," Skitter said with a snort, "You've been in this like constantly cheerful and loud mood since you've got here. I just, I can't wrap my head around the idea that version of me is taking this so calmly. The others are freaking out. Starfield is still recovering from that thing with dad, Marceau gets gloomy at the drop of a hat, and Shy Girl is obviously insane. But you, you just keep rolling as if nothing has happened."

Kneeling and talking was starting to get uncomfortable especially with Skitter's rather judgmental gaze boring down on her, so she stood up to meet the girl in the eye, "Like I said, I'm not as peppy as you think. If I seem to it's just because I'm used to faking it until I make. Besides we get to help people, that's something to be happy and excited about."

"And leaves me with a mess to clean up when you leave." Skitter countered with a flat tone that still held a decent amount of scorn in it.

Taylor couldn't really blame the other girl for feeling that way, especially when there was a bound Tinker cussing up a storm in her bathroom and there only been promises of more intruders in her life since. There was the promise to help a member of a hero team who hated her, a promise to make nice with a Nazi, and last a promise to break a convict out before she was sent to the Birdcage. The idea that a mess was going to be left behind when all the Taylors left wasn't all that farfetched but still…

"Helping them is the right thing to do; I'm not going to apologize for that." Taylor said firmly, "I can say that at least Canary doesn't deserve what she's got and Amy, well, Amy just needs to relax but if we can help them it will be more than worth it. They could be your friends too!"

"Oh, really?" Skitter said not sounding anywhere near convinced, "I can be friends with a Nazi?"

"On her I have no idea," Taylor admitted a bit sheepishly. She had never interacted with the Purity of her world so to hear that she was trying to go hero was a bit of a surprise. Maybe it was just Marceau's world? They would know for sure as soon as Tattletale woke up from her power nap. "From what it sounds like she's pretty nice on Marceau's world."

"Maybe," she said obviously not believing it but wanting to move on, "One thing I've noticed about this whole… idea of Shy Girl started is that you didn't mention anyone, you just went along with whoever Shy Girl or Marceau said. Why is that?"

And that was a question Taylor wasn't sure how to answer, at least not in a room she was pretty damn sure was bugged. It took her a moment, a long silent one filled with Taylor tugging on her hair and an impatient Skitter, but eventually she answered. "There are two people here I want to help but right now I can't. One's going to need to wait until I can make what I need to help her and the other… the other we're just not ready to help and I'm not sure if all of you would go for it. I'm pretty sure Tattletale would and if you're anything like me you will too, but the others I don't know."

Not being satisfied by the answer, as Taylor guessed, Skitter pressed her for a proper answer. "And who are these people? What makes them so important?"

"Didn't Shy Girl already tell you? It's because they're our friends." Taylor answered with all the honesty she could with a smile the probably did nothing for Skitter's frustration.

Skitter's own response was to simply pinch the bridge of her nose and strangle the obvious growl that was trying to work its way out her throat. She succeeded but Taylor could swear that was a brief blast of noise from every bug in the building. "That did not answer my question."

Knowing no answer was going to be good, or safe, enough Taylor simply shrugged her shoulders, "I want to make sure things are ready before we help them, I'll tell you then."

"I, you know what, fine. Whatever." With that Skitter walked away, her agitation not showing in her body language but in the rapid buzzing of the flies that drifted towards her.

Taylor knew she earned no brownie points just then but it wasn't something she could help. She didn't want to put them in a worse situation than they were already in, and having a bunch of Tinker tech wielding mercs after them would definitely make the situation worse.

Taking a breath Taylor sat down again and began to rummage through the various appliance parts in front of her. Most of the parts were incompatible with each other but with a little work she could get the Blender of Disruption to work like she wanted.

Everyone was working so hard to get things done, to keep them safe, and she just felt so under-prepared. The only real offensive option she had was her Ray-Gun and as good as that was it just wasn't enough to handle everything she knew was to come. So she needed to get building, to create something that would help her keep up with the others.

Rolling a screw between her fingers in thought Taylor wondered if she hurried up and remembered more about the patch she made in her world if Dragon would lend her some tools. Or at least give her some decent supplies to work with.

Taylor let her mind wander a bit as she secured the writing in place, letting herself drift toward thoughts of Dennis and her Techies. She missed them so much that ached, and seeing people so much like them and yet so different just felt like a knife twisting in her gut.

All of them were that maybe, just maybe, Shy Girl wasn't as crazy as she seemed. That her 'Guys' were really on their way and that could really bring all the Taylors home. But if the girl was as crazy as she seemed then… well, then it would be up to Taylor. She was sure that she could figure how to send them home if she had enough time and access to the Tinker tech that brought them there. But how long would that take?

Long enough to be too long that's for sure.

Keeping her hopes bright and up Taylor continued to Tinker away. Her mind a whirl with new designs and ideas as she distracted herself from more depressing thoughts.


	12. Chapter 12

*Notes and pages to three stories I was working on literally burn* Huh, might be a sign.

Interlude 2 (Unbeta'd)

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Closing the display on his screen the man leaned back into his chair with a contemplating frown. The situation he found himself in was complex, to say the least, infuriating and confusing to say more. He was facing an unplanned impossibility, something very rare in a world filled with Superheroes. And for the first time in a very long time unsure on how to proceed.

On one hand, he could direct them. Use the chaos they would undoubtedly bring to his advantage. Use them to weaken his enemies. From the transcripts, he was receiving from his various recording devices they were very likely to do that anyway. They've already taken the Merchants Tinker, they planned to attack the PRT building, and try to ensure one of the Empire's heavy hitters didn't fold back in.

It was a series of actions that he could most definitely take advantage of, especially since it seemed like they would be calling him soon for assistance. Assistance he will most graciously give. He had but one concern. The Techno Queen.

Leaning back in his chair he began to wonder exactly who Techno Queen wanted to help and why she was so secretive. Or why she seemed so sure the Tattletale would be so eager to aid her.

If he was honest with himself he knew why or at least had a very good idea. The answer came to him simply when he pondered on who Tattletale would be so eager to strike out against.

She wanted to save Dinah Alcott.

Such a leap of logic wasn't that out there. Tattletale wouldn't hesitate to act against him given the chance and it would explain why the Techno Queen was so wary to talk to Skitter about. A Tinker of any caliber would have been able to see at least one of his bugs in the room, and if she planned to work against him talking about it where he could hear would be… unwise.

Calmly moving out of his chair the man picked up a thin manila folder from his desk and walked towards the door at the back of his office. The door opened to a small spartan room with a little girl shivering on a thin sheeted bed.

"Hello, Pet." The man greeted as his consciousness split into two near identical realities, "I have a few questions for you."

"Everything hurts." She complained to him both worlds, her eyes staring at him with hope and pain. "Candy?"

"Maybe after a few questions, Pet." He said in a soothing voice in one reality while in another he called for Mr. Pitter to get the girl's 'candy'. In the second reality, he waited, not wanting to push his luck just yet, but in the first, he opened his folder revealing a number of pictures. "Now, Pet, what are the chances the girls in these pictures will act against me?"

"Everything hurts," the girl complained even as she looked over the pictures and stopped to clutch her head with a groan of pain, "Urrgh, the numbers go against each other. They keep changing."

Irritating but not altogether unexpected. As was stated before they were dealing with a supposedly impossible situation, even other impossibilities had to be scratching their head. Still, they had received similar results before when they tried to map out a plan against Lung who's escalating power kept changing his Pet's numbers. And just like, in that case, they'd either have to get into very specific actions or ask questions about the possible target instead of the possible attackers.

"Now, Pet, what are the chances that my base will be attacked within the next week." He grimaced as he heard the number, now sure about his suspicions. Not unexpected but certainly disappointing. So with a sigh, he continued to ask the girl questions.

Gathering information not to only plan for the inevitable attack but to strike first if need be.

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Jostling his way passed the door he smiled as he saw his girl already hard at work within the room. She hummed a tune as she played with her new toys. He spared her a fond smile as he walked passed her by, leaving her to her fun as he made his way to the window.

After brushing the broken glass the man leaned out the opening and took in a refreshing breath of air. A smell not too dissimilar to a barbecue made its way to his nose, making his face scrunch in distaste. He had gotten rather tired of that smell over last few months. It had gotten rather boring, bordering bothersome.

Casting a glance across the street he could see a few of the others having their fun. Some getting a bit to eat, some playing tag with some of the local kids, one even taking a nap. Not that he could blame old Ned, things in the town just weren't up to the man's speed.

Keeping things interesting for everyone in his little group was difficult but in the end worth it, for both the entertainment value and survival in general. That wasn't to say he disagreed with Ned, the town was boring. A place they had to visit out of need rather than want.

He felt as if he had to make up for that. That he had to find something that would put a bit of zest back into their lives. Maybe they could head back to one of the bigger cities?

At least that way Ned could have some fun and the songbird could see her song. It, in all honesty, be good fun for all of them. The only question was what city should they visit.

Staring across the field the man began to ponder where they could go. They were in the North East and there were a number of cities where his little band of misfits could find some entertainment. Though, New York may be a bit too much of a headache to deal with.

A lot of bad blood there. Not that it wasn't well earned but it was rather bothersome.

Frankly, Boston had its own appeal. Not only was there a Tinker there that would surely pique dear Bonesaw's interest but there was also a Thinker lead group whose leader seemed like he'd make for some interesting fun.

Even still, Boston just didn't seem like the right fit. It was close but it just didn't… feel right. And after his long career, he had learned to listen to his little gut feelings. Especially when his little gut feelings seemed to be tugging him in a certain direction.

Eventually, his mind drifted to a mid-sized city on the coast he had visited once upon a time. If his memory serves him right only one of the original gangs remained from his last visit. It was just too bad that the most promising of the new gangs had recently gotten too ambitious for its own good, they had shown such promise.

Looking on the bright side, some of his best recruitments came from pulling jailbreaks.

If nothing else Ned would have a good time. And Alan would have someone he could play his little game with. And Hatchetface would have plenty of his preferred prey in the city. The more he thought about it the more he liked the idea.

Not stopping his musing or planning he made his way over to the room's only other living occupant. Tapping her on the shoulder he asked her, "How do you feel about a trip to Brockton Bay?"

Grinning up at the man the young girl nearly bounced as she answered him, "Sure!"

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His kingdom was a large one. It could swallow worlds and engulf systems with its vastness. And he ruled it completely.

Everything the eye could take in, everything that existed, was his to own and control. And yet… and yet he was so alone. He was the sole speck of life in his kingdom, he ruled over nothing but lifeless space.

It galled him to see, especially when he peered into other worlds. To see them teeming with life. To see other intelligent life interacting with each other.

So much to see, so much to hear, to learn. So much to be jealous of. He wished to have it all.

Craving though was not possessing. Every time he reached out and tried to claim land or people from these lands something pushed him back. Boundaries, walls, windows blocked his way leaving him to only look on from a distance.

One day that all changed. From beyond space, from one of the worlds he could view, a girl wad been dragged away. Streaming across his realm she was delivered to a new world, leaving cracks against those windows he once could only look through.

Many of these worlds were similar, eerily so. Boringly so. But it gave him a crack, an influence he never had before. As small as they were.

In one instance, however, he had more than one small crack to reach into. Instead, he had seven. Large enough to send something through even if he couldn't enter himself.

Not that such a thing would deter him.

Gripping out with his power he summoned clouds and swarms of dark orbs, willing them to work. He had an idea but in order for it to work, he was going to need help.

-Day 2 End-

This has literally been four paragraphs away from being done this entire time… please don't hate me. My excuses are my wedding, my honeymoon, and the academy followed by lazy hesitation. I make no promises but I'm hoping to get another day out before… life. Knowing my luck I'll either end up in the hospital or a father before that happens.

Still, hope you enjoyed.

(First letter of every paragraph)

Edit: Dammit I missed Thursday


	13. Chapter 13

Crisis, Day 3.1  
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 _Marceau_

They were going to sit her down and talk. That was their grand plan. They were going to all but ambush that reality's version of Panacea and talk to her. It was a simple plan, one that was filled with holes and possible failures but she was hopeful.

Her hands anxiously started to smooth out her borrowed dress. Skitter didn't have as large of a selection as she did but she made due. They all did, each trying to find something comfortable for themselves from Skitter's closet. The Techno Queen looked particularly uncomfortable in a pair of overalls that wouldn't cover her and the glasses she had gotten from Starfield, who disturbing enough said she'd just regrow eyes for the moment. Skitter just looked annoyed to be sharing her clothes. Taylor was just glad there was a pair of heels for her to wear, a gift from Lisa Skitter apparently never wore. They would be for a good cause that day.

Every once in awhile her eyes would skim over to the cafe door, waiting for their target to arrive. Amy, almost like clockwork, came there every Saturday morning to pick up a coffee and one of the shop's specialty muffins. Despite her various glances the girl had yet to appear and seemed to be the only one at the table bothered by that. Skitter just kept sipping at her tea staring calmly ahead of her while the Techno Queen was busy typing at her newly acquired smartphone.

The atmosphere wasn't tense but it certainly was uncomfortable, not that the Techno Queen seemed to notice. Skitter did not want them there, in her world, invading her life. Taylor couldn't say she blamed her, she was just glad her alternate self was so willing to help Amy. Though she was curious what had happened between Skitter and Amy to make her feel as though she owed the healer something.

Awkward silence continued on for several minutes before Skitter put down her cup, her face actually showing some emotion for the first time that morning, "I don't get it, why do you two insist we have to talk to her like this? Couldn't you two and the other one have just written her a letter or something?" The other one being Shy Girl who had to stay behind when Skitter put her foot down on only two of them going. Besides, Shy Girl's face was too attention grabbing and would likely send the wrong message to Amy.

"Yeah, well, a letter really wouldn't have covered what we want to say." Taylor said, not being completely honest with her reasoning, "Somethings are better said in person."

"Like telling someone that you're their friend from an alternate reality trying to help them out. Much more believable in person… Mostly." The Tinker didn't so much as look up from her typing, not even pausing when she took a big bite out of her muffin.

"Or we could have just made an anonymous donation to her and mailed in those spa tickets you got her. I'm sure Lisa would have set something up."

"Riiight," The Techno Queen drawled out through a mouthful of muffin, "And watch as that money is never touched and the tickets magically end up in Vicky's pockets. At least this way we could tempt her." The sounded fairly accurate to what would happen if Amy wasn't pushed into taking the gifts.

Skitter didn't seem convinced, still, she kept her peace and went back to her tea even though she was still clearly filled with doubts. Taylor was thankful for that, she wasn't sure her nerves could have taken a drawn out argument just then.

Silence returned to their table for a good twelve minutes before she walked in. She was in her street clothes and her hair was shorter but Taylor recognized her with no issue or hesitation. Her heart ached a little at the sight of her.

Taking a moment to center herself Taylor stood from the table, "I'll go get her." and before either of the other Taylor's could say a thing her heels were already clicking across the floor.

Amy was staring at the muffin display when Taylor got in line behind her. There was a fresh batch of carrot cake muffins on display and if this Amy was anything like Taylor's then a few of them were about to go missing. The girl reminded her of a rabbit sometimes.

Resolving herself once again Taylor tapped Panacea on the shoulder. The girl stiffened at the contact before slumping down with an annoyed sigh. She barely turned to look at her, "Yes?"

Taylor paused, cleared her throat, and hoped her voice didn't sound as dry as her throat suddenly felt. "I, uh, can we talk to you? Just for a bit?"

Her eye roll was a completely automated response, just how Taylor remembered it. It also meant that Amy was about to passive aggressively tell her to shove off by saying something like 'She'd be at the hospital soon'. Taylor decided it was best to cut her off before that, "We don't want any healing or anything like that, I promise. We just want to talk for a bit, that's all… I'll throw in a carrot cake muffin?"

Amy paused at her words, considering what she had said before caving into the offer. Whether it was idle curiosity or muffins that won the day she did not know, she was just happy it worked. "You have five minutes."

Lips spread into a too wide smile Taylor excitedly nodded, "All the time we need. Let's just get our orders first and we can head on over."

Paper plates and cups filled the pair made their way over to the Taylors' table where the others waited nervously. Amy came to a halt as she came to the table, probably a little surprised over the three mirror images that sat there, triplets were a rare sight even for someone working at a hospital. Taylor pulled out a chair for her and Amy hesitantly joined them. "So, what do you want?"

"It, well, it's a little complicated to explain." The Techno Queen snorted, her focus split between her typing fingers and the conversation in front of her. Taylor sent her a brief glare, "But, we basically just want to help you."

Naked distrust was the only thing Taylor could make out on Amy's face. She'd have to try and fix that. "It's nothing sketchy or anything we just want to give you something for all your hard work."

Going by the healer's expression her words had the opposite effect. If anything Amy now seemed more way. "You want to give me something?"

Making eye contact with Skitter Taylor gestured for her to hand over the gift. Skitter scowled at her as if offended at being told what to do. But she easily understood the situation and slip their prepared envelope across the table.

Amy stared at the thick envelope with all the uncertainty one would give an angry viper, "What is - I'm not doing anything illegal." She barked, "So if you're trying to bribe me…"

Realization hit Taylor quick and denial was already on her lips. "No! No, it's not a bribe. We don't want you to do anything with the money besides pamper yourself. There's about $10000 cash and two tickets to a pretty good spa out near Boston."

Chatter seemed to quiet around them, making her wish that she had more than a scarf to hide her face with. Skitter glared at her from under her hood but it wasn't her fault that talk about money seemed to cut through her silence field! Techno Queen still didn't look up from her typing, though she did leave a quip.

"Exactly what a bribe would sound like." She mumbled tongue stuck out as she came to an apparently difficult bit of typing. "Just tell her the truth, who we are, why we're doing this, all of that. Honesty is the best policy after all."

"And I thought we agreed that was a bad idea" Skitter hissed. They had agreed it was a bad idea, mostly because the truth sounded crazy. Even for a world filled with superheroes it sounded crazy.

"Uh-huh, and how are things going now." She had a point. Amy had started openly glaring at them and only a morbid curiosity kept her there. If they didn't do something soon the girl would leave.

So, after a long deep breath, she began to explain. She told Amy how she, along with Techno Queen and the others, weren't from Earth Bet. Or at least not that version of Earth Bet. How they had all been taken from their worlds by a misfired Tinker-tech device and how they were going to help that world's versions of their loved ones while they waited to get home.

Her words were met with the expected amount of disbelief, "You expect me to believe this bullshit?" Amy interrupted her with a great air of frustration. "That is literally impossible."

"Expect you to? No, not really. But we _can_ prove it." Techno Queen said looking up from her phone for the first time since they had entered the cafe, "If I remember my biology right then when cells age DNA strands start to get shorter. Right? Well, if we were triplets like you probably think we are then the three of us should be the same age and I'm pretty sure that I've got almost a year on these guys. Here, take a look."

Amy stared at the offered hand about the same way she stared at the envelope but that time she decided to grab the viper by the neck. She started with the Queen's hand, then Taylor's eagerly offered one, and Skitter's reluctant one last. Her face had started to scrunch up, confused and likely having a hard time believing what her power was telling her.

"Right, say I believe you," Skeptical but at least she was willing to keep an open mind, "Who's the you here?"

Taylor answered without any hesitation. Not even bothering to notice Skitter's attempt to silence her, "Her name's Skitter-"

"HA!" Amy laughed out. There was no joke in that laugh, just an angry disbelief. It was the type of laugh a victim of a particularly cruel prank gave, a sound every Taylor knew well. "You expect me to believe that I could be friends with any version of Skitter? That's a laugh. I'm out of here."

Uncontrollably and out of habit Taylor reached for Amy's hand. It was slapped away with a glare. "Don't touch me." The words were hissed viciously and hatefully. Taylor could swear she felt the first sting of tears coming to her eyes.

Raw with emotion Taylor cradled her swatted hand to her chest and watched the alternate version of her girlfriend stomp off. It took some effort to remember that the Amy walking away from her wasn't her Amy but she succeeded. It still hurt all the same.

"The hell did you do to her?" Was that her voice? She couldn't tell. All she knew that her blurry eyes fell onto Skitter after those words.

She looked away.

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An  
This part has literally been done for two weeks but life is annoying and even more annoying is taking things written on paper and putting them in the computer.


End file.
